10/3/2011 Larry Costanzo | Category: Industry News | 327 Views | 0 Comments |

State engineer Todd Sando and the Army Corps of Engineers don`t see eye to eye about releasing more water through the Missouri River. Sando is recommending that the Corps release more water sooner rather than later because the latest winter weather outlook shows colder temperatures and more precipitation than normal.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to take a wait and see approach, because, they say, more water can be released this spring, if necessary.

Michelle Rydquist lives along the river in Bismarck. She and her family cleared out their basement before the flood waters came.

"All the way up to about a foot on the retaining wall, under the deck. So this was all water. And we did cut down about four trees," said Rydquist.

Groundwater caused most of the damage. She`s unsure if the flood waters will return, and she`s not taking any chances. Nothing is getting moved back in yet.

Rydquist said: "We do not want to deal with this problem again. We didn`t have a lot of help in the first place, when it happened down here, and it was just a mess for the whole family and everybody involved."

The National Weather Service says it looks like this winter will be more severe than normal.

"The forecast for a winter season or for an entire season is kind of generic. There is really no way to know exactly how much snowfall there will be or exactly how much colder than normal it will be, just that all indications are for a colder and wetter winter than what we typically experience in North Dakota," explained meteorologist John Paul Martin, with the National Weather Service

Martin says 55 inches of snow, give or take a few, is the norm in North Dakota.

He says there`s unfounded speculation that 200 inches of snow is expected. Bismarck`s record snowfall amount is about 102 inches, so that would be double the all time record.

"I`m not saying it can`t happen," added Martin. "The chance of it happening is not zero. But, statistically, it`s as close to zero as we can possibly get."

Regardless, residents are hoping for the best.

"It would be nice to be able to know if we can put our lives back together and just start over," said Rydquist.

The state engineer says, based on the winter outlook, more storage in the Upper Basin is needed before ice jams and other problems occur, resulting in loss of channel capacity.

He says if more water isn`t released by the beginning of December, flooding could occur in December, January and February with flows in the 30,000 CFS range.



Original Story written by and found on:
Brian Howell | 9/30/2011
http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=52565