snow in them there hills 4

The water is not in our homes yet and should be held back by the levees. It is a bit overwhelming to look out your window to see kids playing and families going for a walk with the background being the flood water held at bay by the clay dike ! We will have this view for up to 10 weeks. People going about their daily choirs of yard work. Mowing around their sandbag ring dikes. Crawling over the piles of sand to get in and out of the houses with armloads of everything from laundry to little ones . This is done with the every looming knowledge that should anything go wrong we will all be standing in at best knee deep water. Yet life goes on , everyone having moments of fear and moments of hope. Looking forward to the distant day when we can start to remove the sandbags and return to normal.

hi releases

I know I have been harping on the corps pretty hard. Today I hear there maybe a Congressional investigation into the failures of the past few months. I for one do not think they are done failing. I can not find out from either the mayors’ office or the governors’ office why we are upping the releases from the Missouri river damns. In the past few days the outflows have passed the inflows into all damns. This means levels should be dropping even if slowly. We still have plans to increase the releases even thou this will flood double what is already under water and cause stress on both dikes/levees as well as mind and sole. I would like to know what is coming down the pipe that does not give us a little reprieve from these higher releases. Is the snow pack melt going to finally be as bad as they never agreed before, is there some other fear that has them in a panic. Something that again is a secret until the proverbial shit hit’s the fan?

Theres snow in them there hills 2

just heard on the news -- output more then input in both the damns -- ( above and below bismarck ) however they are going to increase the hi flows and keep them thru Aug now --  ??????

Theres snow in them there hills

Today the snow in the Mont. snow pack has once again became the big reason for the flood to come to the Missouri river system. A few days back the main and only reason being considered was the rain event. It did have a big impact on the water however the snow which has been known about for 5 months was not part of the problem. Now with the rain event out of the picture we are somehow finding this hidden snow to be a big problem again. We have for the first time in weeks got more water leaving the damn then coming in, yet the snow melt now requires even higher releases to flood downstream cities to make room for the melt. Is this the same snow melt. The rain event was a good distraction from one of the biggest oversights by the corps in years. ( I hope ) I know this sounds simple but if you know you are going to put more water into a pail then it holds, shouldn't you plan on dumping some out first? The lake has been coming up all winter and has had low releases all winter. Full at the time of the rain event and start of the snow pack melt now requires releases higher then ever seen. These releases are planned for 6 to 8 weeks. This is way more water then a single rain added. The snow pack was talked about on a news show back in Jan to be almost 200% of normal. Somehow this number never made its way to the guy in the big chair. The guy who dumps water out of the pail if you'll let me put it that way.
     To date many millions of dollars have been spent. Many tens of thousands of man-hours have been spent. All this effort is being spent to protect us from raising water. The effort of all these people both private and national guard looks as if it will pay out benefits. Much of what was going to be under water will be saved. What is the real cost? I for one have no belief in my local government anymore. How could the corps let so much water be stored as to have no alterative but to cause a historic flood event? How could there not be any type of oversight committee for something that has so much importance attached to it with so much room for mistakes? (This brings up even another question, how do you get the job as head of the Missouri river system with the corps? Something for another time and maybe some thought should be given when picking the next guy. )
Rumors were out over a week before the news was released. They tell us not to believe what we hear, but most of the rumors have proved to be right on. Why was so much information hidden from us so long? They say the time for pointing fingers will come. That it is not now and time is best spent dealing with the water. I agree to a point. We have much too much work to be done now, save what we can. But do not forget, this whole thing was most likely something that could have been a non-event.