OMAHA, Neb. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District completed work yesterday on the Union Dike break repair project near Valley, Nebraska. The breach repair was finished a day ahead of schedule and provides significant public safety benefits to the local area.
The Omaha District has received numerous calls from individuals with private levees that were damaged. If these levees are not in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers PL84-99 program they are not eligible for rehabilitation assistance. The owners of these levees should work with their county emergency management personnel and/or the state to determine whether assistance is available to them.
The Omaha District is continuing efforts to perform damage assessments as water recedes and access to levees become available. The district is conducting underwater surveys of scour holes along the Missouri and Platte rivers in an effort to support these efforts.
There are more than 500 miles of levees on the Missouri, Platte, and Elkhorn rivers and tributaries that have experienced significant flood damage. The previous reported figure of 350 miles has been updated as waters continue to recede and the impact of unregulated runoff has become more apparent. Due to the magnitude of damage along these levees, repair of the levee system efforts will take an extended period of time to execute. Levees must be active in the Public Law 84-99 program to be eligible for repairs.
The majority of the levee system south of Omaha remains compromised and vulnerable due to record inflows surpassing their designed protection levels. There are more than 50 confirmed full/partial breaches at L611-614 (South of Council Bluffs, IA), L-601 (South of Glenwood, IA), L-594 (near Fremont County, IA), L-575 (Fremont County, IA), L-550 (Atchison County, MO), L-536 (Atchinson County, Mo), R-613 (Sarpy County), R-562 (Nemaha County, NE), Clear Creek (Ashland, NE), Union Levee (Valley, NE), and R-573 (Otoe County, NE).
Significant snowmelt has occurred across the Dakotas this week which is causing high flowing rivers and streams to swell further. Rises are likely to continue as this snowmelt combines with snowmelt moving through the river system. A storm system is moving across the central Rocky Mountains and central plains through Saturday and some of the precipitation is falling as snow across the western basin. Majority of the precipitation is falling across the eastern basin as rain. Generally dry conditions are expected across the plains for the rest of the weekend into next week.
A risk of significant flooding continues due to the high plains snowpack in North and South Dakota, especially across eastern South Dakota and the unregulated James and Big Sioux River basins. Residents should continue to monitor the situation and keep in close contact with their local and state emergency management organizations to stay updated on any evacuation plans and emergency conditions. Levee breaches can happen quickly or gradually and can occur when water overtops a levee and washes out a portion of the levee and can occur at lower water elevations as well.
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 228,000 sandbags, 2,020 super sandbags, 16,500 feet of HESCO barriers, six pumps and 21 poly rolls and a sandbag machine.
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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