The Cave

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

MISSOURI RIVER 2011 FLOODING UPDATE - August 3, 2011

Missouri River dips below 18 feet in Bismarck-Mandan ND

The Missouri River briefly dropped below 18 feet in Bismarck-Mandan on Sunday morning but climbed again overnight.

According to National Weather Service, the river’s elevation was 17.95 feet at 10:45 a.m. Sunday, measured at a river gauge near Bismarck’s water treatment plant north of Memorial Bridge.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been gradually lowering releases from the Garrison Dam since late June, but the river has been falling slowly in response. It fell below 19 feet on July 13 for the first time since June 24. The weather service projects that it will remain around 18 feet until this weekend when it predicts that it will fall to 17.6 feet on Saturday.

Todd Hamilton, meteorologist with the weather service, said the river’s level was tied to dam releases rather than rainfall.

“I think you’d have to have a pretty hefty rainfall,” he said. “It’s not going to make it go up unless there’s a significant extended rainfall over the western part of the state.”

The corps is holding dam releases at 110,000 cubic feet per second until Thursday, when they will lower them to 105,000 cfs.

OMAHA.com | Levees may not be done by spring 2012 and could eclipse $1 Billion.

This is a race the Army Corps of Engineers expects to lose.

Corps officials say it's doubtful all the federal levees on the Missouri River can be repaired in time for next spring's runoff.

There is too much work to get done before next March, but the levees that protect "dense population centers" will get priority, Brig. Gen. John McMahon told The World-Herald Monday.

He also said the cost of repairing the levees and work on the river's six upstream dams in the Dakotas and Montana could eclipse $1 billion.

That includes only the corps' costs.

It excludes the millions of dollars homeowners and farmers lost in property and crops and the millions counties and cities shelled out to fight the flood. It also excludes state and county costs for fixing damaged bridges, roads and other infrastructure.

It's also not the final number.

"It's a running estimate," McMahon said.

The corps is starting to look toward the future as an end to this year's flooding approaches. By mid- to late September, the Missouri is expected to recede back into its banks, ending this spring and summer's flood.

However, McMahon and others cautioned that local and state officials and others need to stay just as vigilant in monitoring the system's levees, including those at Omaha and Council Bluffs.

"We're still fighting a pretty tough fight on some of those levees," said Col. Robert Ruch, commander of the Omaha district, noting a "large and aggressive" sand boil fought recently near Council Bluffs.

He said the threat of a levee breach remains real as long as the levees are holding back water.

Ruch also said the levees need to be monitored aggressively.

In Nebraska, the state in recent days turned over the monitoring of Omaha's levees to the city, removing the Nebraska National Guard. Omaha officials objected but said they would use city workers and private contractors to monitor the levees.

The corps expects to begin work on the levees as soon as the Missouri returns to its banks.

That work will not be easy.

First, it will take time for water on the flood plain to recede. Some of that water may be trapped behind roads, hills and other structures, requiring local officials and others to force the water back into the river.

The volume of water on the flood plain is three times the amount held in the reservoir at South Dakota's Gavins Point Dam, the corps said.

And, once the water recedes, contractors and others will have to wait until the ground is dry enough to get to and repair certain levees.

McMahon said the corps was unlikely to get all the federal levees back into pre-2011 shape for the spring thaw.

The good news is that a repeat of the 2011 flood is highly unlikely. The chances of it happening again: roughly 1 in 500, said Jody Farhat, director of the water management division of the corps' Omaha District.

"This was a rare event, and the chance of getting another event again next year is remote."

RadiationNetwork.com

Missouri River Dams and River Levels Flood Map

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?q=https://sites.google.com/site/gmap4files/p/news/missouri_river.txt&ll=43.761599,-101.071993&t=h&z=6&label=on

US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS FORECAST SCHEDULE OF RELEASES OF 6 MAINSTEM MISSOURI BASIN DAMS

Updated Daily

http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/reports/twout.html

NOAA Hydrologic

http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/river.php?wfo=abr&wfoid=18696&riverid=203276&view=1%2C1%2C1%2C1%2C1%2C1%2C1%2C1&toggles=10%2C7%2C8%2C2%2C9%2C15%2C6&pt[]=145640&pt[]=142853&pt[]=144098&pt[]=144183&pt[]=142396&pt[]=143355&allpoints=143990%2C145585%2C145025%2C145026%2C144876%2C145027%2C143234%2C143184%2C145519%2C145640%2C144217%2C142150%2C142780%2C142853%2C145202%2C141586%2C144582%2C143543%2C144796%2C144098%2C144240%2C141320%2C141614%2C142968%2C144183%2C142574%2C143478%2C142193%2C142760%2C142003%2C142610%2C142396%2C144496%2C147345%2C141899%2C143355%2C142050%2C141570%2C144165%2C143476%2C141703%2C142023%2C144123%2C141863%2C143539%2C143436%2C141917%2C143009%2C142688%2C142640%2C143925%2C143734%2C142729%2C143790%2C142668%2C141962%2C142132&data[]=hydrograph&submit=Make+my+River+Page!

FT. PECK DAM - MONTANA

GARRISON DAM - NORTH DAKOTA

FT RANDALL DAM - NEAR CHAMBERLAIN SD

GAVINS POINT DAM - NEAR YANKTON SD

MISSOURI RIVER NEAR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

BLAIR, NEBRASKA NEAR FT. CALHOUN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

BROWNVILLE, NE - NEAR COOPER NUCLEAR PLANT

RESERVOIR CONTROL CENTER REPORTS

The following is the latest Reservoir Readings on the Upper Missouri River. This report is updated daily. Click on the picture for today's readings in reference to Gavins Point Dam, Ft. Randall Dam in SD, Big Bend Dam in SD, Oahe Dam in SD, Garrison Dam in ND and Fort Peck in Mt.

Link to daily report:

http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/reports/showrep.cgi?3MRDTAP7

August 3, 2011

June 13, 2011

Dutchsense YouTube | 8/3/2011 -- Scalar Square & HAARP rings in CO, IL, MI, IN -- science behind the theory LINKED BELOW

LINKS BELOW!!!!! Still on the fence about "HAARP rings" and frequencies being used to manipulate the weather from ground based stations? Want to know about HAARP , VLF, UHF and weather modification? Want to prove it to a non-believer? Here you go!

http://www.dutchsinse.com/blog/?p=660

HAARP rings = FLASH RADAR .. 'flashing' the storms = weather modification
http://www.dutchsinse.com/blog/?p=605
http://www.dutchsinse.com/blog/?p=385

proof that weather modification is real:
http://www.dutchsinse.com/blog/?p=583
http://www.dutchsinse.com/blog/?p=580 (less info)

MISSOURI RIVER 2011 FLOODING UPDATE - August 3, 2011

Missouri River dips below 18 feet in Bismarck-Mandan ND

The Missouri River briefly dropped below 18 feet in Bismarck-Mandan on Sunday morning but climbed again overnight.

According to National Weather Service, the river’s elevation was 17.95 feet at 10:45 a.m. Sunday, measured at a river gauge near Bismarck’s water treatment plant north of Memorial Bridge.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been gradually lowering releases from the Garrison Dam since late June, but the river has been falling slowly in response. It fell below 19 feet on July 13 for the first time since June 24. The weather service projects that it will remain around 18 feet until this weekend when it predicts that it will fall to 17.6 feet on Saturday.

Todd Hamilton, meteorologist with the weather service, said the river’s level was tied to dam releases rather than rainfall.

“I think you’d have to have a pretty hefty rainfall,” he said. “It’s not going to make it go up unless there’s a significant extended rainfall over the western part of the state.”

The corps is holding dam releases at 110,000 cubic feet per second until Thursday, when they will lower them to 105,000 cfs.

OMAHA.com | Levees may not be done by spring 2012 and could eclipse $1 Billion.

This is a race the Army Corps of Engineers expects to lose.

Corps officials say it's doubtful all the federal levees on the Missouri River can be repaired in time for next spring's runoff.

There is too much work to get done before next March, but the levees that protect "dense population centers" will get priority, Brig. Gen. John McMahon told The World-Herald Monday.

He also said the cost of repairing the levees and work on the river's six upstream dams in the Dakotas and Montana could eclipse $1 billion.

That includes only the corps' costs.

It excludes the millions of dollars homeowners and farmers lost in property and crops and the millions counties and cities shelled out to fight the flood. It also excludes state and county costs for fixing damaged bridges, roads and other infrastructure.

It's also not the final number.

"It's a running estimate," McMahon said.

The corps is starting to look toward the future as an end to this year's flooding approaches. By mid- to late September, the Missouri is expected to recede back into its banks, ending this spring and summer's flood.

However, McMahon and others cautioned that local and state officials and others need to stay just as vigilant in monitoring the system's levees, including those at Omaha and Council Bluffs.

"We're still fighting a pretty tough fight on some of those levees," said Col. Robert Ruch, commander of the Omaha district, noting a "large and aggressive" sand boil fought recently near Council Bluffs.

He said the threat of a levee breach remains real as long as the levees are holding back water.

Ruch also said the levees need to be monitored aggressively.

In Nebraska, the state in recent days turned over the monitoring of Omaha's levees to the city, removing the Nebraska National Guard. Omaha officials objected but said they would use city workers and private contractors to monitor the levees.

The corps expects to begin work on the levees as soon as the Missouri returns to its banks.

That work will not be easy.

First, it will take time for water on the flood plain to recede. Some of that water may be trapped behind roads, hills and other structures, requiring local officials and others to force the water back into the river.

The volume of water on the flood plain is three times the amount held in the reservoir at South Dakota's Gavins Point Dam, the corps said.

And, once the water recedes, contractors and others will have to wait until the ground is dry enough to get to and repair certain levees.

McMahon said the corps was unlikely to get all the federal levees back into pre-2011 shape for the spring thaw.

The good news is that a repeat of the 2011 flood is highly unlikely. The chances of it happening again: roughly 1 in 500, said Jody Farhat, director of the water management division of the corps' Omaha District.

"This was a rare event, and the chance of getting another event again next year is remote."

RadiationNetwork.com

Missouri River Dams and River Levels Flood Map

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?q=https://sites.google.com/site/gmap4files/p/news/missouri_river.txt&ll=43.761599,-101.071993&t=h&z=6&label=on

US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS FORECAST SCHEDULE OF RELEASES OF 6 MAINSTEM MISSOURI BASIN DAMS

Updated Daily

http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/reports/twout.html

NOAA Hydrologic

FT. PECK DAM - MONTANA

GARRISON DAM - NORTH DAKOTA

FT RANDALL DAM - NEAR CHAMBERLAIN SD

GAVINS POINT DAM - NEAR YANKTON SD

MISSOURI RIVER NEAR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

BLAIR, NEBRASKA NEAR FT. CALHOUN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

BROWNVILLE, NE - NEAR COOPER NUCLEAR PLANT

RESERVOIR CONTROL CENTER REPORTS

http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/reports/showrep.cgi?3MRDTAP7

August 3, 2011

June 13, 2011

Seven startling things most people still don't know about the national debt, banking and the money supply

Most people, even smart people, know surprisingly little about the way money really works in Big Government. With the debt ceiling fiasco suddenly raising awareness of the possibility of a total global financial blowout, now seems like a good time to remind people of seven disturbing facts about money that are almost never acknowledge in the old media.

Fact #1 - There is no FDIC insurance fund.

The money at your bank is insured against loss by the FDIC's insurance fund, right? Nope. That's total fiction. There is no actual money in the fund. The FDIC insurance money has already been looted by the U.S. Treasury which has simply replaced the money with a bunch of IOUs.

Why does this matter? Because it means that if the U.S. government goes into default, so will the FDIC! And that means all your bank funds have zero insurance. That's gonna be a big shock for tens of millions of people when they finally figure this out one day...

Fact #2 - There are no social security funds, either.

When you pay social security taxes, all that money goes into a trust fund that's held for safekeeping until the day it pays you back, right?

Ha! That's the "sucker's view" of social security that only ignorant people believe. In reality, there is no money in the social security trust fund because it too has all been looted by the U.S. Treasury and spent. In truth, social security is already broke. Can't wait for people to wake up and figure this one out, either...

Fact #3 - The U.S. Treasury is stealing money from you every day, even if you pay no taxes!

Here's a mind-boggling truth that most people just can't seem to get their heads around: The U.S. Treasury is stealing money from you every single day by the simple fact that they keep creating new money and handing it out to wealthy banksters. Well, technically this is being done by the Federal Reserve, which isn't even part of the federal government. But it's all done in cahoots with the Treasury, which is eroding the value of your money through these money creation and distribution actions.

That's why prices keep going up all around you, folks: Food isn't suddenly worth more money; the truth is that your money is worth less! That's how the Treasury and the Federal Reserve steal from you without even breaking into your home.

Probably 99.9% of the population has no understanding of this phenomenon -- the erosion of currency valuation through the centralized government printing of more currency. And yet it is a government scam that has been carried out against citizens of the world time and time again, spanning millennia! As history has clearly shown, every nation that goes down the path of printing more currency to pay its bills eventually ends up in a runaway hyperinflation scenario followed by economic collapse. The USA will be no different.

Fact #4 - The "balanced solution" isn't balanced.

Don't you love the quirky White House Press Secretary who keeps spewing out the phrase "balanced solution" even while the debt deal leaves the U.S. budget entirely unbalanced?

When you're spending more money than you're earning, that's not financial balance. When the White House says "balanced" what it really means is "compromised" -- as in, half way between the Republican position (spend us into purgatory) and the Democratic position (spend us into oblivion). Neither party has any real solution to the cancerous growth of Big Government. That's because they are creatures of Big Government!

Politicians can no more solve the problems of Big Government than arsonists can solve the problem of office fires. Because they are, themselves, creatures of runaway debt spending (how else do you get elected these days?), they simply do not possess the cognitive framework from which real financial solutions must stem.

Fact #5 - The government is going to steal everything from you before it collapses

Oh my, this is a tough one for people to get their heads around... especially those who naively trust governments to act in the interests of the People. The simple truth of the matter -- and I've publicly made this prediction before -- is that the government is going to STEAL almost everything you own as it heads toward a total financial implosion. This will include:

• The government theft of private retirement accounts. The feds will claim they're taking them over "for your protection." Yeah, right. And then one day they will simply all vanish. Kiss your IRA goodbye...

• The government theft of precious metals. Within the next 3 years, watch for a national emergency to be declared, followed by government confiscation of gold and silver. The feds will take your gold and hand you paper money in exchange. The paper money, of course, will be all but worthless shortly thereafter. Only the suckers, of course, will actually turn in their metals...

• Government takeover of your bank accounts. As banks begin to fail in the big collapse, the government will step in and take ownership of the failed institutions, just as it did with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which used to be publicly-owned companies but are now largely just government finance operations). This will put your bank accounts under the direct control of the White House, which can use executive orders to do things like banning all wire transfers out of the country or limiting daily withdrawals and transfers. Sure, you'll still "own" your money in the bank, you just won't be able to freely access it!

Fact #6 - Most people have no idea about fractional reserve banking, derivatives, the money supply or the Federal Reserve

It's not just that most people don't understand banking and finance; it's that even members of Congress have no idea how all this works. With few exceptions (like Ron Paul), they're just clueless!

Get this: Even most bankers don't even know how fractional reserve banking really works. They don't understand derivatives, either, which is why they screwed them up so badly in the housing boom that crashed in 2007. And because bankers, investors and bureaucrats have no idea how it all works, they unwittingly turn it all into a runaway catastrophe.

Allowing ignorant adults to play with debt and derivatives is like letting infants play with nuclear weapons. It can only lead to something messy.

Fact #7 - Most people are betting their lives on the dollar

People buy insurance for their cars, their homes and even their health. But when it comes to money, 99 out of 100 people in America are betting their entire financial existence on the U.S. dollar! They get their paychecks in dollars, their savings accounts are in dollars, and all their assets are denominated in dollars. As a result, they have no diversity to protect them against dollar devaluation.

That's kinda crazy, considering just how quickly the dollar could collapse in the near future and become totally worthless. That's why smart people are diversifying their assets and converting dollars into land, gold, silver or even storable food. Here in central Texas, even ammunition has a long-term barter value that far exceeds dollars.

Looking around at the financial behaviors of others, I'm just stunned at how many people are betting everything on the dollar because they never realized they had any other option (that's the way the government likes to keep it, of course!).

Coming soon: A huge national finance education of the masses

Mark my words, folks: The great financial collapse of America is now closer than ever. While I can't put an exact prediction date on it, there's absolutely no doubt that it's coming. The morons in Washington aren't doing anything to avoid it, either -- they're all just cashing in as much as they can before the big collapse rolls in.

Bunch of cowards and crooks running this country. They don't understanding banking and finance, and they're determined to make sure you don't either. Because the less you know about what's really going on, the longer they can continue to loot the U.S. economy while people stand around and do nothing.

How bad is the situation, really? Just yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden called Congressional Tea Party members "terrorists" for their insistence that the U.S. budget be balanced. So now, the mere idea of calling for a balanced budget turns you into a "terrorist" to be prosecuted under the Patriot Act.

And why not? Demanding financial sanity MUST be labeled an act of terrorism for our criminal government to continue its own criminal looting operation. Next we'll probably see the President ordering the arrest and prosecution of any members of Congress -- i.e. "terrorists" -- who do not go along with unlimited increased in the debt ceiling.

Now you see what the terrorism laws are really all about: They are legislative weapons to be used against political enemies, not actual terrorists. Meanwhile, Big Government is technically engaged in the use of financial weapons of mass destruction against the People, yet no one notices.

A bizarre world we live in, folks. It is dominated by the mindless masses and run by criminal sociopaths. Those who demand real solutions are labeled terrorists, and those who try to explain all this to everybody else are labeled "alarmists."

Just wait until this house of cards collapses, though. There will be a day of reckoning in which a whole bunch of apologies will be owed to all those people who tried to warn the nation what was really happening (and where it would lead us).

Frack Alphabet by Kris Kitko & Friends (Hydraulic Fracking using toxic chemicals)

Cave Editor's Note: A song by Kris Kitco to wake people up about how adults in our nation are standing silent about oil/gas corporations and the chemical corporations that provide the chemicals in hydraulic fracking for oil/gas in their drilling are contaminating the environment with toxic chemicals (while buying off our government by means of campaign contributions).

Children singing about the beauty of fracking! Children are our future. Let's celebrate them and sing about the wonderful world we are handing over to them.

KrisKitco.com - "Frack Pit Love Song"
Kris Kitko's song about pits containing toxic frack waste water and chemicals. $0.99

ALL DOWNLOAD SALES GO DIRECTLY TO BAKKEN WATCH

NORTH DAKOTA'S ONLY NON-PROFIT DEDICATED TO RAISING AWARENESS OF THE DANGERS OF FRACKING (HYDRAULIC FRACTURING).

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Magnetosphere Update - Tuesday August 2, 2011

http://www2.nict.go.jp/y/y223/simulation/realtime/index.html

CAVE NEWS YOU TUBE CHANNEL
DAILY SINCE DECEMBER, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/user/CaveNews?feature=mhum

ALASKA'S HAARP FLUXGATE MAGNETOMETER
http://137.229.36.30/cgi-bin/magnetometer/gak-mag.cgi

Latest Earthquakes Magnitude 2.5 or Greater in the United States and Adjacent Areas and Magnitude 4.5 or Greater in the Rest of the World - Last

Update time = Wed Aug 3 0:00:02 UTC 2011

	MAG	UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s	DEPTH km	Region
MAP	4.6	2011/08/02 23:24:33	15.0	ETHIOPIA
MAP	4.7	2011/08/02 22:09:49	44.1	WESTERN IRAN
MAP	4.7	2011/08/02 22:07:18	13.0	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	2.9	2011/08/02 21:03:52	25.0	PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP	2.5	2011/08/02 20:57:41	26.0	MONA PASSAGE, PUERTO RICO
MAP	5.4	2011/08/02 19:18:49	542.4	SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP	4.4	2011/08/02 18:08:37	27.9	EASTERN IRAN
MAP	2.8	2011/08/02 16:34:07	38.3	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	3.1	2011/08/02 15:47:55	131.7	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2011/08/02 15:44:04	61.0	ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP	2.8	2011/08/02 13:54:12	213.6	SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP	2.5	2011/08/02 13:45:39	39.4	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	2.9	2011/08/02 12:00:45	62.0	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP	3.4	2011/08/02 11:54:06	7.5	ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP	4.7	2011/08/02 10:32:16	53.0	VANUATU
MAP	4.8	2011/08/02 09:00:24	48.2	SAMAR, PHILIPPINES
MAP	4.8	2011/08/02 07:14:44	118.5	CATAMARCA, ARGENTINA
MAP	4.6	2011/08/02 06:43:35	100.8	GUAM REGION
MAP	5.4	2011/08/02 05:09:26	125.6	BANDA SEA
MAP	4.7	2011/08/02 03:37:43	74.7	NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP	4.9	2011/08/02 01:44:18	45.8	NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
MAP	2.6	2011/08/02 01:19:43	10.0	BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO

Yellowstone Seismogram Reporting Link:

http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/wrapper.php?file=YFT_SHZ_WY_01.2011071400.gif

PACIFIC NORTHWEST SEISMIC NETWORK

RECENT CENTRAL STATES EARTHQUAKES

http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.htm

1.6 mag - 2011/08/01 5 km ( 3 mi) NW of Philadelphia, TN
2.2 mag - 2011/08/01 9 km ( 5 mi) E of Greenbrier, AR
1.8 mag - 2011/07/31 3 km ( 2 mi) SSE of Guy, AR

SOLAR UPDATE

MAGNIFICENT SUNSPOT: Double sunspot 1263 is a whopper. Its two dark cores are each wider than Earth. Those are Texas-sized bubbles of plasma rising and falling like water boiling on top of a hot stove. The magnetic field of sunspot 1263 harbors energy for powerful X-class solar flares. Because the sunspot is turning to face Earth, any such eruptions in the days ahead would likely be geo-effective.

Long Duration M-Class Flare and CME.: Reported here first, A long duration M1.4 Solar Flare took place around Sunspot 1261 at 06:19 UTC early Tuesday and also blasted a small and earth directed Full-Halo Coronal Mass Ejection (CMEs) into space. There will be a chance for minor geomagnetic storming within 72 hours.

Solar Update: Sunspots 1261 and 1263 continue to produce C-Class flares and there will remain the chance for an M-Class flare. Sunspot 1261 which is in prime position for possible earth directed Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), continues to grow in magnetic complexity and it could be only just a matter of time before a moderate to strong Solar Flare takes place.

MOON UPDATE

MISSOURI RIVER 2011 FLOODING UPDATE - August 2, 2011

Missouri River dips below 18 feet in Bismarck-Mandan ND

Posted: Monday, August 1, 2011 5:20 pm

The Missouri River briefly dropped below 18 feet in Bismarck-Mandan on Sunday morning but climbed again overnight.

According to National Weather Service, the river’s elevation was 17.95 feet at 10:45 a.m. Sunday, measured at a river gauge near Bismarck’s water treatment plant north of Memorial Bridge.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been gradually lowering releases from the Garrison Dam since late June, but the river has been falling slowly in response. It fell below 19 feet on July 13 for the first time since June 24. The weather service projects that it will remain around 18 feet until this weekend when it predicts that it will fall to 17.6 feet on Saturday.

Todd Hamilton, meteorologist with the weather service, said the river’s level was tied to dam releases rather than rainfall.

“I think you’d have to have a pretty hefty rainfall,” he said. “It’s not going to make it go up unless there’s a significant extended rainfall over the western part of the state.”

The corps is holding dam releases at 110,000 cubic feet per second until Thursday, when they will lower them to 105,000 cfs.

OMAHA.com | Levees may not be done by spring 2012

August 2, 2011

This is a race the Army Corps of Engineers expects to lose.

Corps officials say it's doubtful all the federal levees on the Missouri River can be repaired in time for next spring's runoff.

There is too much work to get done before next March, but the levees that protect "dense population centers" will get priority, Brig. Gen. John McMahon told The World-Herald Monday.

He also said the cost of repairing the levees and work on the river's six upstream dams in the Dakotas and Montana could eclipse $1 billion.

That includes only the corps' costs.

It excludes the millions of dollars homeowners and farmers lost in property and crops and the millions counties and cities shelled out to fight the flood. It also excludes state and county costs for fixing damaged bridges, roads and other infrastructure.

It's also not the final number.

"It's a running estimate," McMahon said.

The corps is starting to look toward the future as an end to this year's flooding approaches. By mid- to late September, the Missouri is expected to recede back into its banks, ending this spring and summer's flood.

However, McMahon and others cautioned that local and state officials and others need to stay just as vigilant in monitoring the system's levees, including those at Omaha and Council Bluffs.

"We're still fighting a pretty tough fight on some of those levees," said Col. Robert Ruch, commander of the Omaha district, noting a "large and aggressive" sand boil fought recently near Council Bluffs.

He said the threat of a levee breach remains real as long as the levees are holding back water.

Ruch also said the levees need to be monitored aggressively.

In Nebraska, the state in recent days turned over the monitoring of Omaha's levees to the city, removing the Nebraska National Guard. Omaha officials objected but said they would use city workers and private contractors to monitor the levees.

The corps expects to begin work on the levees as soon as the Missouri returns to its banks.

That work will not be easy.

First, it will take time for water on the flood plain to recede. Some of that water may be trapped behind roads, hills and other structures, requiring local officials and others to force the water back into the river.

The volume of water on the flood plain is three times the amount held in the reservoir at South Dakota's Gavins Point Dam, the corps said.

And, once the water recedes, contractors and others will have to wait until the ground is dry enough to get to and repair certain levees.

McMahon said the corps was unlikely to get all the federal levees back into pre-2011 shape for the spring thaw.

The good news is that a repeat of the 2011 flood is highly unlikely. The chances of it happening again: roughly 1 in 500, said Jody Farhat, director of the water management division of the corps' Omaha District.

"This was a rare event, and the chance of getting another event again next year is remote."