Some mighty emergency civil engineering will not be tested. Governor Dennis Daugaard announces that the Big Sioux River crested this morning at North Sioux City, earlier and lower than expected.
KETV meteorologist Kyle Gravlin posts this chart of the river's water level:
Big Sioux crested ~1 am Fri. near Sioux City. 3rd highest crest on record, but didn't reach "major" flood stage. pic.twitter.com/xnnq5uwEz1
— Kyle Gravlin (@kylegravlin) June 20, 2014
Earlier projections had said the river would top the 1968 record of 109 feet, but this morning around 8 a.m., the river was coming down from a crest of 106 feet.
The Governor had closed I-29 from the Vermillion exit down to build a levee across the freeway at Exit 4 to divert flood water from the Big Sioux into McCook Lake and down to the Missouri. The Governor reports that the Interstate has stayed dry and the road will thus be reopened today.
But consider the plight of McCook Lake residents. Brian Allen of KSFY reported yesterday that around 300 homeowners were sandbagging like crazy in anticipation of their lake rising ten feet with the diverted flood waters. KSFY's Kamie Roesler reported that at least two homeowners were knocking their homes down to make way for flood defenses. Are we ready to compensate these homeowners for the sacrifice we called on them to make... and then did not need?
Related Reading: I don't know if this counts as good emergency management or not, but Kathleen Serie of KELO-TV reports that the state yesterday was turning away able volunteers and shorting McCook Lake residents of resources for their own flood protection:
The Army National Guard is hard at work filling hundreds of sandbags, but with such a high demand, residents are waiting in line for hours to receive only 20 bags at a time. This is causing a lot of frustration for homeowners.
The flooding situation isn't new for people who live near McCook Lake. In past floods, residents came together to prepare sandbags as a community. But this time, the state has appointed the Army National Guard to do the work.
Residents of McCook Lake are hard at work preparing their homes for expected flooding of the Big Sioux, but some are being turned away from helping.
"We're very frustrated as a community. We've been through this before. We've sandbagged before. We're very good at it, we're quick and efficient at it, and they're turning all the public volunteers away," McCook Lake Resident Kathy Roberts said [Kathleen Serie, "McCook Lake Residents Prepare for Big Sioux Flood," KELOLand.com, 2014.06.19].
I can understand the sensibility of keeping civilians out of a military operation. But if we're taking folks' property for public purposes, is it really that hard to accept their offered labor and find a place for willing hands in the sandbag line?
All may not be lost. There is still more rqin in the forecast for the next several days.
Mike, I think you mean, "All may not be saved."
But there's the hard emergency management question: If more rain is coming, do we leave that levee up at Exit 4? (By the way, I still haven't seen photos of the plugged overpass. Did crews finish it?) Or do we knock it down and hope that if the river resurges, we have time to put it back up? How long do we keep a major federal highway closed as a flood control measure? Or do we look for a way to control the flooding in the river's existing channel without disrupting either traffic or the property at McCook Lake?
With the few days of dry we've had, the watershed has had time to recover. Unless we get another 24hrs of constant rain again, we should be in the clear.
I'm amazed at the masterful clusterf*ck somebody made in logistics to make it nigh impossible for the McCook Lake residents to protect their homes.
Photo of the highway levy:
http://www.ksfy.com/story/25828497/big-sioux-river-crests-below-previous-record
...Not as impressive as my imagination
Wayne, It is absolutely outrageous that the State of SD, under the unable leadership of Governor DD, did the same thing that they did in the flood three years ago. Put all of their resources to protecting the homes of the wealthy in Pierre and Dakota Dunes, who built in the flood plane, then but ignoring all of the other towns and homeowners on the Missouri River back then and now putting the folks in McCook Lake at risk to save the homeowners in Dakota Dunes. Thank God that the levee was not needed, but this again makes it perfectly obvious to anyone paying attention, that it is way past time for the reign of Rounds/Daugaard to end.
Joe Lowe should be weighing in on this......and Susan Wismer should be saying she would select Lowe as an emergency manager (or something like that) WHEN she is elected. (am I being too ambitious here?)
Maybe I am getting old and my sense of reason is fading...
I don't understand this. The state wanted to divert water that would destroy homes in one place, so they could keep it from destroying homes in another place? How does that make any sense?
Millionaires in Dakota Dunes hire better,more expensive lawyers than common folk at McCooked Lake. Better lawyers attorneys fees will cost the state more in litigation.
there must be a story behind rounds buying a lot and/or building a trophy home with a view of the mighty mo' (in a natural flood plain) after having served as gov. of a state with more shoreline than california with an ongoing relationship with Corps of Engineers. we do not want another republican senator.
Bendagate:
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/legislative-inquiry-on-eb--might-seek-subpoena/article_3b6b99de-02ec-5d5f-bc66-4eae1974259f.html
Those SDRC records that walked out the door at NSU with Bollen probably kept on walking and have exercised their way down to almost weightlessness. Nothing to see there,folks. BTW,has anybody actually seen Bollen in months? Hard to imagine that if the state was really concerned about the records that belong to the state,they would have procured them months ago,just to make sure they weren't altered or destroyed.
Dana, there's quite a bit of Lowe's platform and pizazz that Wismer could use. I wonder: he wanted to come back to Pierre to work as Governor; would he be inclined to come back to Pierre as emergency manager?
That is what I was wondering also, Cory. Call me "crazy" (as many people do!!) but I would have alot more trust with a Joe Lowe (and at Wismer's direction) at the helm in state emergencies such as fires, blizzards, floods, etc... than the current folks. I just think that Lowe brings an amazing and wide spread experience base to the table, that South Dakota needs to take advantage of.
Be nice if those DC Republicans unsatisfied with 70,000 emails from the Obama Administration would get interested in tracking missing information in South Dakota.