http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/13/Mo-River-flood-may-be-unmatched-in-length/UPI-64191307952000/
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa, June 13 (UPI)
Missouri River flooding could rival a nearly 60-year record in places and the duration may be unprecedented, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said.
The river, whose weekend flooding shut the WinnaVegas Casino and Resort in Sloan, Iowa, a half-mile from the river, has been out of its banks in western Iowa for a week and the corps says it will start releasing 150,000 cubic feet of water per second from five river dams Tuesday.
The public engineering, design and construction management agency -- which started releasing 146,100 cubic feet of water per second Sunday from the hydroelectric Gavins Point Dam, just upstream from Nebraska and Iowa -- said the massive water releases through the 2,341-mile river spanning parts of 10 U.S. states was necessitated by a combination of heavy Northern Plains rain and a giant Rocky Mountain snowpack.
Flooding is expected to last two months and endanger normally levee-protected towns in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, not just along the river but also within several miles of it.
A catastrophic levee breach could force mass evacuations of Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the Missouri's east bank across from Omaha, Neb., the Omaha World-Herald reported. Much of Eppley Airfield, Omaha's airport, could wind up under water, the newspaper said.
The city of Carter Lake, Iowa, surrounded on three sides by Omaha and on the fourth by the river, "would literally become a lake," the newspaper said.
"The levees may have had this kind of force before, but they haven't seen this kind of duration," Randy Behm, floodplain worker for the corps' district office in Omaha, told The Des Moines (Iowa) Register.
The dirt and clay levees will be soaked for two months, which could turn the protective barriers into a muddy mess that simply oozes away, the newspaper said.
The sheer force of the river is another problem, rivaling 1952's flood in cresting height -- expected at 37 feet at Sioux City, Iowa, and 36 feet at Omaha -- but far exceeding it in length of time.
The Missouri River dropped quickly in 1952.
"This is a big flood," Iowa Department of Natural Resources floodplain expert Bill Cappuccio told the Register. "And it's a long flood. It's like, you can drive your car on the short trips and it may be fine. But would it last cross-country?"
Heavy rains could worsen things considerably, he said. A lot of rain in Montana and the Dakotas could put devastating pressure on upstream dams and swell the Missouri even higher, the World-Herald said.
The National Weather Service forecasts wetter-than-usual conditions in the Missouri River basin this week, but normal rainfall for the summer.
Residents and officials have been building up and inspecting levees up and down the riverbanks for the past two weeks.
The Iowa Department of Health plans to deploy a "disaster behavioral health-response team" to offer psychological help to affected residents Tuesday. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services will sponsor a free psychological hot line for flood-stressed Nebraskans.
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