OMAHA, Nebraska - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will increase releases from Gavins Point Dam later this week, weather permitting.
Releases are now at 35,000 cubic feet per second and that will increase to 41,000. Their plan is to increase releases to maintain available flood control storage space as they expect above normal runoff for 2020.
“This is keeping with our aggressive strategy to maintain as much flood control storage as possible for as long as possible, said John Remus, chief of the Corps’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division. This will provide the greatest amount of flood risk reduction across the basin.
Releases will only be increased as long as the resulting downstream river stages are unlikely to impact the levee repair and recovery efforts or contribute to downstream flooding
Releases at Gavins Point will be closely monitored to ensure pool levels do not impact intakes that supply water from the reservoir for municipal and sanitary water use.
Remus encourages everyone to monitor the National Weather Service river forecasts and keep up-to-date on weather and river information.
The next spring flood outlook from the National Weather Service will be issued Feb. 27.