Posted on 06/08/2011 8:32:33 PM PDT by annie laurie
Persistent Northern Plains rainfall and heavy mountain snowpack is setting the stage for the worst flooding on the Missouri River since 1993, reports Allen Motew, QT Weather meteorologist. These extreme levels of flooding are predicted to last for at least the next month.
“The entire Missouri River Basin is flooding – only to get worse over the next several weeks,” Motew reports. “Abnormal rainfall is now expected to continue (or increase for many) across 1000’s of miles and millions of acres over the next eight days, from Alberta to Ohio.”
Motew says recent reports show that the Missouri River is closed to vessels in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri and that 500,000 acres of farmland may soon be flooded.
The National Weather Service’s latest statement has flood warnings for these rivers in Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa:
* Missouri River near Greenwood
* Missouri River near Verdel
* Missouri River at Niobrara
* Missouri River at Springfield
* Missouri River at Yankton
* Missouri River near Gayville
* Missouri River near Maskell
* Missouri River near Ponca
* Missouri River at South Sioux City
NWS says record high releases will continue at all of the Missouri River reservoirs in South Dakota for the next several weeks.
Looking Back at 1993
Motew says, meteorologically speaking, the current flood it is not like the Great Floods of 1993. “But the result may be similar or even worse,” he says.
Abnormal late spring rains are now expected to occur during the next 8 days over the Corn Belt. Motew says these rains will increase the numerous local and wide-scale problems associated with the early stages of the unfolding flood scenario that is forecast to last through July.
Adding Fuel to the Fire
On Tuesday, heavy rains again fell across the Missouri River Basin, which added to the already drenched areas. The Northern Rockies and Upper Missouri River Basin has seen 2 to 6 times normal rainfall in the past 30 days.
On Friday, Motew predicts, an upper low system will move across North Dakota and the Missouri River Basin. This weekend, rains will stretch from Alberta, Montana and Saskatchewan to Ohio with the heaviest seen in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.
Trouble for North Dakota Producers
Thousands of homeowners are piling sandbags and building dikes to hold back the surging water in North Dakota, farmers and ranchers are also taking steps to prevent huge losses. Watch AgDay's report:
http://www.agweb.com/article/500000_acres_of_farmland_in_flood_path/
I suppose it might sound a bit less apocalyptic if it were titled:
500,000 acres of agricultural land to be inundated with rich mountain topsoil.
Flooding ruins a crop. The land itself, not so much.
I-29 near Omaha/Council Bluffs will be closed in the next 24 to48 hours...
Modale (a little town south of Sioux City) is planing to evacuate, as is Hamburg, Iowa.
This is a nasty flood, and at least partially man made.
Given the recent Yute mobs storming the Country Club Plaza, rolling blackouts during very hot mid-western summers could get ugly fast.
The richest farmland is "river bottom". Occasionally, the river comes back for a visit.
It won’t be easy on the people living there. I saw something on Yahoo about how Americans are thought to have the best sense of humor in the world. This is a big country we always have, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, nasty ghettos and Obama. If we do not learn to laugh we would go mad.
Thanks annie laurie. G’night all.
I-90 in Montana was closed due to the Little Bighorn being well above flood stage (near the Little Bighorn Battlefield). Large portions of Wyoming and Montana are undergoing serious flooding, which will result in more water heading down into Nebraska, the Dakotas, and points east.
Co-workers in NKC are keeping on top of this. Some worried, some not.
Setting it up for yet another land grab...
Like I said in an earlier thread, I am in Montana and my town has had the flood of a century but there has not been any snowmelt yet!
Governor of Montana was on Fox News the other morning saying that we have 8X normal snow above us and it will flow both East and West when it starts to melt, on top of already saturated ground into the Columbia Basin and the Missouri.
This is not just going to flood farmland folks. A major catastrophe is about to hit the US. Our roads here are washed out already, imagine all the other roads and bridges yet to be affected. Imagine farmers AND big city residents in the path of this. Imagine trying to drive from East to West in the US with any kind of supplies, gasoline...imagine the possibilities for disaster here.
I heard that some of this flooding was due to some special water projects that Tom Dachle had managed to create in his home state. Anybody know anything about that?
So will the corn farmers that got corn planting dollars from the government gas company have to pay back these dollars?
I went through three big (”100 year”) floods in the summer of ‘98-—gained about a foot’s depth of bottom land.
I 80 should be fine by Omaha. However, a lot of the smaller bridges will be in trouble, and the approaches are going under.
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