KCRag Forum

They're not sending trillions of gallons of water downstream for shits and giggles.  Obviously water is flowing into the reservoir at rates comparable to what's going down the spillways.

You know... I used to think that, surely, the Corps could have released water sooner to prevent this all from happening.
...
So, at that rate... it's only going to take -43- hours to empty the entire lake!

During the last half of May, the upper Missouri River basin received nearly a year`s worth of rainfall. In addition, the forecast snow melt runoff is 212 percent of normal across the upper portion of the river system. These conditions have resulted in Missouri basin reservoirs across eastern Montana and the Dakotas nearing their maximum levels. Record releases have continued at Gavin’s Point dam located to the west of Yankton, South Dakota. Planned water releases were increased to around 150,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) from Tuesday, June 14th through Tuesday, June 21st (a release rate of 150,000 cfs would fill the dimensions of a football field 156 ft deep in one minute!). The previous high release at Gavin’s Point was 70,000 cfs in 1997.
However, a large heavy rain system impacted much of South Dakota and northern Nebraska from Sunday night, June 19th through early Tuesday morning, June 21st with as much as 6 inches of rain falling across parts of South Dakota. Due to the expected high inflow into several upstream reservoirs the US Army Corps of Engineers has announced increases in the release from Gavins Point beginning Wednesday, June 22nd. They are now projecting releases of 155,000 cfs on Wednesday and a new peak of 160,000 cfs on Thursday, June 23rd which will continue through August. This additional 10,000 cfs on top of the previous record 150,000 cfs will result in an estimated increase in river stages from 0.3 to 0.4 of a foot from Omaha to Rulo, Nebraska...around 0.6 of a foot at St. Joseph...and roughly 0.7 of a foot at Kansas City. Actual stages will depend on tributary inflows. It will still take an estimated 4 to 5 days before the additional water arrives.

scooterj wrote: North Kansas City did not flood...

“Missouri River levels will remain dangerously high for the foreseeable future,” said Steve Iverson, deputy engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Follow this company  ’ Kansas City District.

Releases from Gavins Point will increase to 160,000 cubic feet per second by Thursday morning, Omaha-based Corps Water Management Division Chief Jody Farhat said Tuesday night. Before 2011, releases had never exceeded 70,000 cfs.

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But heavy rains Monday and Tuesday in the Dakotas and Nebraska pushed the reservoirs, the river and its tributaries higher, forcing the corps to accelerate the release of water from reservoirs, including two with flood control pools that have filled beyond 100 percent.