News Reports on flooding throughout the basin

As snow melts mixes with rain in the upper basin and spring storms parade across the Great Plains and into Missouri and Iowa, the Missouri River is beginning to approach flood stage throughout the basin. Because of the dams, this is a pretty rare and serious event. As always, it is additional spring/summer rain that will make the difference in major flooding.

The Corps of Engineers bases their flood storage capacity in the reservoirs on predicted snowpack in the mountains (along with estimated rainfall in late spring). Both of these numbers are much larger than predicted so we are currently facing a situation where the dam releases are increasing at the same time spring rains are happening. In Bismark, ND, for example, the Corps just announced they will be ramping releases of Garrison Dam to 85,000 cfs and city officials are expecting a record flood there (since the dams were built). Gavin's Point Dam near Yankton, SD has remained steady for over a week at 55,000 cfs, but releases began increasing yesterday and are expected to bump up to above 70,000.

Below Gavin's Point Dam, communities in Nebraska and Iowa on down to St. Joseph have been facing high water due to the dam releases for over a month. While other parts of the country were getting hammered by rain, the Missouri River was spared. That's changed, and new predictions for the river have most gages from Omaha down approaching or well into flood stage.

Here's a link where you can see the hydrological predictions for gages you select in the Missouri River basin. Click here. Check the gage you want to see on the left and the information you want on the right then click "Make My River Page" You can bookmark your selected page for reference as the flood season progresses.

There are links to other great river stage products and flooding maps on the Missouri River Relief "River Links" page: www.riverrelief.org/links/

Here's a string of stories related to flooding across the basin, for a taste of how different communities are being affected.Click the article title to read it.So much is happening right now, you can really get a feel for it by checking out the home page of each news source for updates in that local area.

Montana
Great Falls Tribune - May 22, 2011: "Snowmelt and rain close roads, flood buildings around region"
Great Falls Tribune - May 24, 2011: "Much of Montana under flood warning or watch status" 
Great Falls Tribune - Photo Gallery

North Dakota
Bismark Tribune - May 24, 2011: "Ready for 75,000 cfs? Bismark braces for bigger Missouri River" 
Bismark Tribune - May 24, 2011: "Water System Driving Corps' control of Missouri River"
Bismark Tribune - May 25, 2011: "Rising Missouri Challenges Us" 
Associated Press - May 25, 2011: "North Dakota National Guard returns to flood duty to help Bismarck and Minot areas"
KFYR TV - May 25, 2011: "Bismark Flooding to be worse than expected"
Bismark Tribune - May 25, 2011: "For some, it's time to seek higher ground"

South Dakota
Yankton Press-Dakotan - May 24, 2011: "Rising Water to force aggressive dam releases"

Nebraska
Omaha World Herald - May 25, 2011: "Flooding Coming...but how much?"

Missouri 
St. Joseph News-Press - May 24, 2011: "‘No flexibility left and no relief in sight' - Continuing rains putting pressure on river"

It appears that other Missouri communities haven't caught on to the impending flood yet. I wasn't able to find much else on the web yet.