Spring Flooding

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NebrClone

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Apr 11, 2006
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Flew in to the Freemont to pick up my daughter and her roommates who attend Midlands. The flooding is worse than I thought. That tiny airport was crazy busy.

My wife just caught a flight to Wahoo and a friend is going to pick her up and take her home. My office is by the airport and I can hear them taking off the last 2 days. Pretty bad when have to fly to make a 3 mile trip.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
Supposed to get pretty warm this week. Still a lot of snow left to melt here in northern iowa. The cold temps on friday froze the ponds slightly and kept more from melting. Allowed things to go down some up here and buy time to get the rivers situated for the next wave coming.
 

Entropy

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Oct 27, 2008
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Cedar Rapids, IA
Nothing like what western IA and especially Nebraska are dealing with but CR is now forecast to crest at 18.5'. The inundation map shows that is close to affecting the Newbo area but I am not sure if that has been updated since the newish Sinclair levy was finished.
The HESCO barriers are getting put up.
I haven't heard a call for sandbagging yet.
 

wxman1

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The HESCO barriers are getting put up.
I haven't heard a call for sandbagging yet.

Saw that. I doubt we will see one with the forecast crest only being 18.5. My personal opinion is sandbagging isn't needed much anymore unless it gets above 25'.
 
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NebrClone

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My wife just caught a flight to Wahoo and a friend is going to pick her up and take her home. My office is by the airport and I can hear them taking off the last 2 days. Pretty bad when have to fly to make a 3 mile trip.

Home for the first time since Friday. Drove 65 miles to find an open bridge for a normally 5 mile drive.
 

somecyguy

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Jun 19, 2006
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If the river goes crazy like it did in 16, that's potentially another week schools will be closed. The school year will end damn near close to July.
 

Cyclones_R_GR8

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Feb 10, 2007
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Omaha
Currently Truman lake is 9 feet above normal. The highest I have seen was about 15-16 above normal so it has a way to go. When you think about the size of that lake, that's a lot of water. I'll most likely take a drive down that way in a few weeks.
 

somecyguy

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Jun 19, 2006
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Is CR ever getting a flood wall or are the HESCO barriers the current and future flood wall?

Eventually. The city council dug in their heels when the Army Core said it wasn't economical to pay for walls on both the west and east side. So total cost of the project is something like an obscene $750M over 20+ years. It sounds like the completed portion protecting the NewBo area worked as intended though.
 

alarson

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Saylorville Lake is now forecasted to go over the emergency flood wall but around 5 feet from the pneumatic crest gate around the 27th of March. Any increase in the inflow to the lake could be a massive problem...

http://rivergages.mvr.usace.army.mil/WaterControl/Districts/MVR/Forecast/sayforecast.html

They'd probably open up the outflow i assume, once it hit that point. From what i can see the peak outflow is more than double what it is currently forecast to be
 

cyfan92

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Sep 20, 2011
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Augusta National Golf Club
They'd probably open up the outflow i assume, once it hit that point. From what i can see the peak outflow is more than double what it is currently forecast to be

Outflow is determined by the Racoon River since that can't be controlled. They won't open the gates moer if the Racoon is still in major flood stages
 
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jdcyclone19

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Apr 14, 2017
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Iowa
I found this very interesting about the Saylorville Dam:
"Under normal conditions, the dam releases water through a gated 22-foot diameter-conduit located at the base of the dam. The conduit’s maximum outflow is 21,000 cfs. Since the 1993 flood, the Corps has incorporated an inflatable dam (pneumatic crest gates) that, when inflated, provides an additional 6 feet of spillway elevation to 890’ NGVD29. However, if the pool level is forecast to rise above 890’ NGVD29, the inflatable dam will be lowered as we do not have the legal authority to maintain the pool above 890’ NGVD29."

However the can submit a deviation for above 890'.

https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Portals/48/docs/CC/FactSheets/ODS/Saylorville Lake - Operations.pdf
https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Port.../SaylorvilleLakeOperations2010SpringFlood.pdf
 
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