Battling Mother Nature

As I stated in a previous post, there has been unprecedented water levels and releases up and down the Missouri River.  From Montana to Missouri, communities along the River have been affected by these levels.  The picture above was taken at the Oahe Dam Stilling Basin when they were releasing somewhere around 55,000 cubic feet per second.  On June 7th, the Corps began releasing 150,000 cfs out of the dam powerhouse and stilling basin.  Over the weekend the Corps increased those releases to 160,000 cfs due to rain that was falling in the area.  The releases are meant to keep the water from spilling over the emergency spillway, which would cause even more disastrous flooding to the cities of Pierre and Ft. Pierre.  The water level has been within inches of the top of the spillway, but the Corps is determined to keep water from going over the spillway or opening the gates for increased flows.  The maximum output of Oahe Dam is supposed to be somewhere around 165,000 cfs.  The Corps was originally hoping that they would not have to go above the 150K.  Levees were built to protect the cities at a projected elevation with flows at that level.  So far, the levees are holding, but releases are expected to stay at this level into August.

All four of the dams in South Dakota along the Missouri River are releasing at 150,000 cfs.  That's over 1 million gallons per second.  It's hard to gain a perspective on that, but there are tons of videos and pictures of the flooding and releases online.  They still don't do it justice.  Brandon, works for the Corps, at Big Bend Dam in Fort Thompson, and has been busy monitoring water levels and the damage that the flows are causing to surrounding landscapes.  Fishing and other recreation has been affected, but the long-term affects will not be know for several months, and maybe not until next year and beyond.

The last time we even came close to an event like this was in the late 1990's when releases neared 80,000 cfs.  On lake Oahe, above Pierre, prey fish populations were decimated and walleye and other predatory game fish began to basically starve to death.  Time will only tell, but where access is possible the fishing has been pretty good so far.

I've noticed that although we're fighting flooding in this area, others are praying for rain all along the south to fight off drought and fires.  Along with all the other tornadoes and other weather events it's been a busy spring that has affected many of you.  Wishing everyone well, and we look forward to hearing from and seeing all of you this fall.