Omaha, Neb. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District continues to work with state, local, and tribal governments to repair damaged levees from the 2019 unregulated runoff event. There are over 350 miles of levees on the Missouri, Platte and Elkhorn rivers and tributaries that have experienced significant flood damage. Due to the magnitude of damage along these levees, repair efforts will take an extended period of time. The Omaha District is initiating efforts to perform damage assessments as water recedes and access to the levee system becomes available.
Omaha District Commander Col. John Hudson visited Pierre, South Dakota and met with state emergency management officials. They discussed flood forecasts as well as Omaha District’s ability to respond to state, county, or tribal requests for assistance. Col. Hudson also met with South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and Congressman Dusty Johnson. Col Hudson provided them with a situational update on Omaha District’s capabilities regarding the upcoming spring thaw and potential rains. He also discussed the Army Corps’ technical assistance in Sioux Falls, South Dakota concerning high flows and snow melt concerns.
The District is sending notification to levee sponsors in the PL 84-99 program on Monday, March 25 with information on how to request damage assessment and levee repairs. Levees must be active in the Public Law 84-99 program to be eligible for repairs.
Much of the levee system remains compromised due to the record inflows surpassing their designed protection levels.
As of noon today, there were 47 confirmed breaches at L611-614 (South of Council Bluffs, Iowa), L-601 (South of Glenwood, Iowa), L-594 (near Fremont County, Iowa), L-575 (Fremont County, Iowa), L-550 (Atchison County, Missouri), L-536 (Atchinson County, Missouri), R-613 (Sarpy County, Nebraska), R-562 (Nemaha County, Nebraska), Western Sarpy (Ashland, Nebraska), Clear Creek (Ashland, Nebraska), Union Levee (Valley, Nebraska), and R-573 (Otoe County, Nebraska). In addition, levee 550 remains overtopping.
The Omaha District is initiating efforts to perform damage assessments as the water recedes and access to the levee systems becomes available. The District has already begun initiating underwater surveys of scour holes along the Missouri and Platte rivers as well as collecting aerial imagery to support these efforts.
Omaha District’s focus remains on ensuring the safety of citizens and communicating the conditions on the river systems to all of our partners and stakeholders. The Corps continues to provide flood fight assistance to state, local, and tribal government agencies.
The Omaha District has distributed approximately 227,000 sandbags, 2,020 super sandbags, 9,930 feet of HESCO barriers, seven pumps and 21 poly rolls.
The first source of information for citizens is their local emergency managers. For questions or concerns you can call 211, which is a national resource hotline and website geared to local area needs.
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