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Grant helps protect critical Hudson River estuarine habitat

June 13, 2013

NOAA's Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program helped protect over 300 acres of critical lands along the Hudson River near the town of Stockport, NY that will be managed by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation as a protected wildlife habitat, open to the public for passive recreational use.

Download here (Credit: NYS DEC)

A NOAA grant of more than $800,000 has helped New York state complete the acquisition of nearly 300 acres of critical habitat located within the Stockport Creek and Flats biologically important area.

New York’s departments of State and Environmental Conservation and the Scenic Hudson Land Trust, the largest environmental group focused on the Hudson River Valley, joined in the purchase.

The $806,017 grant comes from a fiscal year 2010 grant competition held by NOAA’s Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP).

The acquisition will conserve and permanently protect key spawning and nursery habitat for the Hudson River’s migratory fish including blueback herring, alewife, American shad, American eel, striped bass, and the federally endangered short-nosed sturgeon. In addition, 64 acres of globally rare freshwater tidal wetlands will be protected including a segment of land that is part of an important bald eagle habitat corridor.

“This important acquisition will protect vital intertidal marsh and swamp, floodplain forest, and buffer lands which are critical habitat for a host of birds, fish, and other fauna,”said Betsy Blair, manager of the Hudson River reserve. “It will also enable tidal wetlands to migrate landward and upslope with sea level rise, building resilience to climate change in the Hudson River estuary”

“This NOAA conservation grant program is one of America’s best investments because it leverages funds from federal, state and private partners to acquire and protect acres of critical coastal habitat that supports both coastal communities and its ecosystems,” said Margaret Davidson, acting director of NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management. “NOAA is pleased to have contributed to the preservation of this important area of the Hudson River valley.”

Map of NOAA's Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program project area along the Hudson River near the town of Stockport, NY.

Download here (Credit: Scenic Hudson.)

This acquisition will protect one of the last major privately owned holdings within the NOAA-funded Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve -- a parcel known as the Plotkin property, which will be owned by New York state’s department of environmental conservation (DEC) and managed as a protected wildlife habitat open to the public for passive recreational use.

With the addition of the Plotkin property, the reserve’s Nutten Hook State Unique Area to the north and Hudson River Islands State Park, Gays Point Section to the south, will now be linked to protect almost five miles of contiguous shoreline within the Stockport Flats component of the Hudson River NERR. The property straddles the towns of Stuyvesant and Stockport in Columbia County, N.Y.

“Protecting the ecological values of Little Nutten Hook and Stockport Flats is critical to maintaining and improving Hudson River habitats for numerous fisheries, migratory waterfowl and marsh birds,” said New York DEC Commissioner Joe Martens. “These habitats are important for both the species that depend on them as well as the numerous recreational and economic benefits the Hudson River provides to the people of New York State.”

The Hudson River reserve, one of 28 national estuarine research reserves, is a network of four sites along the Hudson River containing 5,000 acres of estuarine habitat designated in 1982 by NOAA and New York state. The reserve receives funding from NOAA, under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, and is operated by the DEC as natural field laboratories for research and education, with a strong focus on conserving natural resources, biodiversity, and public access.

NOAA’s CELCP program, established by Congress in 2002 to advance the objectives of the Coastal Zone Management Act, has protected nearly 100,000 acres of critical coastal and estuarine lands in partnership with federal, state, territorial and local government agencies and private organizations.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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Unbound river to surge through Grand Canyon

Visitors to the majestic Grand Canyon next year may get to see something that has happened only a few times in the past half-century.

By Mark Henle,, The Arizona Republic

Billions of gallons of water will flow through the bypass tubes at Glen Canyon Dam as part of an experimental flood.

By Mark Henle,, The Arizona Republic

Billions of gallons of water will flow through the bypass tubes at Glen Canyon Dam as part of an experimental flood.

The Colorado River, restrained in its flow through the canyon since the 1960s, will be allowed to gush in semi-flood conditions again, beginning next year under an Interior Department plan to protect native fish and naturalize the river.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the decision to conduct high-volume releases from Glen Canyon Dam, which has drawn concern from the power industry and Native American tribes, represents "a milestone in the history of the Colorado River" that will enhance conservation and scientific knowledge. Simulated floods in the canyon are planned through 2020.

Leslie James, executive director of the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association, a non-profit coalition of electric companies, said she has "serious concerns" about the high-flow protocols: "I think the devil's in the details of how it will be implemented."

James said the release of surge water through spillways — bypassing hydroelectric turbines — is expected to cost power companies $8 million to $120 million over the next eight years. She said there is scientific evidence that surges from the dam during spring runoff might produce huge spawns of trout, the primary predator of the native humpback chub. "I think it raises a lot of questions," James said.

The first controlled flood could occur next spring. Interior Department protocols call for releases of up to 45,000 cubic feet per second during March-April and October-November, each lasting up to four days.

Until the Colorado River was dammed in the 1960s, it flowed through the Southwest, especially during flood seasons, when it carried sediment that formed sandbars and created eddies critical to native fish such as the humpback chub. Completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1966 allowed regulation of the river's flow for hydroelectric production but eliminated natural beaches and created a haven for predatory species such as rainbow trout.

Environmentalists always argued the dam should be opened occasionally to emulate the Colorado River's naturally occurring floods. Power industry officials resisted, saying lost hydroelectricity production would cost consumers millions of dollars.

Salazar said his decision was based on results from high-flow tests conducted in 1996, 2004 and 2008.

Nikolai Lash, a program director with the Grand Canyon Trust, a conservation organization, said man-made floods may help save a devastated river. "They're especially critical now because the Colorado system is in a severely depleted state," he said.

Kurt Dongoske, historic preservation officer for the Pueblo of Zuni, said the tribe will watch closely out of concern that artificial floods may damage religious sites.

The National Park Service issued a notice that says river rafters will be advised when high flows are planned. Rafters may travel at double the normal speed, and some camp areas may be inundated. Jonathan Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, said the research will be critical to preserving the Grand Canyon's "awesome resources and visitor experience."

Contributing: Wagner also reports for The Arizona Republic

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Vt. experts: Some post-Irene river repairs harmful (AP)

MONTPELIER, Vt. – In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene's flooding, Vermont became what one lawmaker called a "lawless state" in restoring its rivers, with crews digging gravel from stream beds and piling boulders on river banks to strengthen them.

Environmentalists and some state officials told Vermont lawmakers Tuesday that the result is serious environmental damage, especially to fish habitats, as well as a possible worsening of future floods.

Vermont has the expertise to care for its rivers in ways that minimize the threat and impact of future floods, said David Mears, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. But state regulations were relaxed on an emergency basis following the Aug. 28 storm. In some instances, the result sometimes was shoddy river restoration work, Mears and others said.

Lawmakers heard testimony that efforts to put rivers back in the courses they ran before Irene may have done more harm than good in some cases.

"Spending money to do work without consideration for how river dynamics work is just money down the hole," Mears said. "We're just going to replace the same culverts, the same bridges, the same homes, the same roads over and over and over again if we don't do it right."

Ron Rhodes, a river steward with the Connecticut River Watershed Council, told lawmakers Vermont must avoid "more unchecked, unregulated emergency dredging, graveling and channelizing in an attempt to `fix' the rivers. This is a failed practice of our past."

The day began with a talk from Mary Watzin, dean of the University of Vermont's environmental school, who gave the assembled members of three legislative committees a primer in fluvial geomorphology — the science of how rivers change their courses over land. The upshot, Watzin, state officials and environmentalists said, was that rivers need room to run with the least interference possible.

Rivers are speeded up and floods made worse by a range of human activities, they said. Straightening and channeling rivers means they can't meander around bends and dissipate energy. Replacing the soil and vegetation along river banks with boulders or other materials also denies the river a chance to lose some of its power and slow down. Impervious surfaces like streets, roofs and parking lots send storm water into rivers much faster than an absorptive marsh or forest floor.

Some of those involved in Irene recovery efforts used steam shovels and other construction equipment to dig in rivers for gravel to rebuild washed out roads. Patrick Berry, commissioner of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said this practice could hurt populations of brook and brown trout for years to come.

Mears said his department was investigating reports that some people were illegally extracting gravel for sale.

Rep. David Deen, chairman of the House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources Committee, said later that some of this work was done during prime fish spawning season and that the results won't be known until fish eggs hatch in the spring.

Sen. Richard McCormack, a member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said many of his constituents have resented a state law, passed in 1988, that bars removing gravel from rivers.

"You have a culture that to this day has never accepted that they can't," McCormack said. Following Irene, Vermont became a "lawless state" when it came to protecting its rivers, he said, with the prevailing ethic being, "Do what you have to do."

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No sign of young killer whale in Alaska river (AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – There's been no sign in two days of a juvenile killer whale last seen swimming in a river in southwest Alaska, a federal fisheries official said late Monday.

The juvenile whale was last spotted swimming downriver in the Nushagak River on Saturday, the same day the carcasses of two other adult orcas, believed to be females, were discovered in the river, NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Julie Speegle said in a statement.

An aerial survey of the river Monday afternoon failed to find the young whale, she said.

Four veterinarians were scheduled to fly to Dillingham on Tuesday to perform necropsies on the two adult whales. Leading the effort will be a killer whale specialist from SeaWorld in San Diego.

It will likely take two days to complete the necropsies, Speegle said. According to NOAA, female killer whales can weigh up to 16,500 pounds and be 28 feet long. Preliminary results possibly could be ready later this week.

The whales have been swimming in the Nushagak River for about three weeks in what federal biologists said was an unprecedented trek for Alaska killer whales.

The whales swam about 30 miles up the Nushagak River to a spot just downriver from the village of Ekwok, which is about 285 miles southwest of Anchorage.

It had been hoped all three would swim downriver and eventually find their way back to Bristol Bay.

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Corps of Engineers Continues Assistance in Missouri River Flood Fight (ContributorNetwork)

The Army Corps of Engineers continues its efforts to reduce the damage created by the record water levels along the Missouri River and its tributaries. Six major dams and hundreds of miles of levees have been tested by the historic runoff the river basin is experiencing. Fifteen levees have been breached or overtopped at this time along the lower Missouri.

Main Stem Dams

Fort Peck: The Fort Peck reservoir is at capacity. The current plan is to lower discharges during the remainder of July. The reservoir is currently 2.5 feet below its record height in June.

Garrison: The Garrison reservoir is above the height of the spillway when closed. The open gates are providing surcharge storage and allowing the reservoir to hold additional flood water. Discharges are expected to be reduced slightly during the remainder of July.

Oahe: The Oahe reservoir is very close to capacity. The Corps plans to reduce the water discharge slightly during the rest of the month of July.

Big Bend: The reservoir created by the Big Bend dam is slightly below capacity at this time. Discharges have been reduced by about ten percent for July from the record amount set in June.

Fort Randall: The Fort Randall reservoir is continuing to fill though still below capacity. The Corps plans to increase discharges to offset the increase of water entering the reservoir.

Gavins Point: The reservoir remains about three feet below its record, set in June. Discharges will remain at 160,000 cubic feet per second, a record output, for the foreseeable future.

Lower Missouri River Levees

Federal Levees: 48 federally controlled levees line the Missouri River and its tributaries downstream of Rulo, Kan. Only one has breached or overtopped, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. One additional levee, near St. Joseph, MO, is within two feet of overtopping.

Non-Federal Levees: These 100 levees currently have a number of issues. Fourteen of them have been breached or overtopped. An additional 26 are within two feet of being overtopped.

The levees are under continued pressure from the flood waters. Most are saturated with water, making their integrity an issue. The Kansas City Star quotes a number of experts who expect additional levee failures. Most of the ten states in the Missouri River basin have activated National Guard units for flood fighting duties, including patrolling levees.

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It's official: Record June runoff to swollen Missouri River (Reuters)

OMAHA, Neb (Reuters) – It has been obvious for a while from flooding downstream but now it is official: The swollen Missouri River received a record amount of rainfall and snowmelt runoff in June.

The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers said in a report released on Friday that June runoff into the river was 13.8 million acre-feet of water, topping the previous record set in 1952. It was the most runoff since the agency began keeping records in 1898.

What's more, the combined total runoff for May and June fell just short of the normal total runoff for an entire year.

Record water releases to relieve pressure on six reservoirs from Montana through South Dakota have strained flood defenses along the Missouri River and continued to breach a few levees downstream.

(Reporting by Kyle Peterson and David Hendee; Editing by Greg McCune)

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Most Missouri River levees holding up to surge (AP)

By JOSH FUNK and GRANT SCHULTE, Associated Press Josh Funk And Grant Schulte, Associated Press – Thu Jun 16, 11:37 pm ET

HAMBURG, Iowa – The surge of water released from dams holding back the rain-swollen upper Missouri River reached deeper into Nebraska and Iowa on Thursday, headed swiftly toward Missouri and a soggy summer.

Almost all the levees along the way have held strong. There have been no significant injuries or deaths. Now comes the weeks of fretting and worry over whether levees in several states will continue to hold until the river starts to drop sometime this fall.

"The ongoing threat will be to the levees, which were designed to hold back water for a short period of time," said Derek Hill, administrator of Iowa's Homeland Security agency. "We don't know how they will perform if the water level remains high for several months."

Water from one levee breach, five miles south of the small town of Hamburg, Iowa, reached the partially evacuated community late Wednesday. There were no immediate problems with Hamburg's new 8-foot-tall backup levee, which officials scrambled to build during the past two weeks and where about 5 feet of water is eventually expected collect by Friday.

Upriver in South Sioux City, Neb., officials scrambled earlier this month to build a 7,000-foot-long levee to protect the city's northwest side. City Administrator Lance Hedquist said that levee is holding, and the floodwater hasn't even reached it yet in some places.

"Everything looks very good," Hedquist said. "Both levees are strong, healthy. I think our community is safe and well protected."

About six miles away in Dakota Dunes, S.D., a levee partially collapsed Thursday. The damaged section of the south levee was repaired and steps are being taken to prevent further erosion. But Gov. Dennis Daugaard said the partial collapse shows the potential for levee failure is a real danger.

Flooding along the Missouri River has already caused significant damage in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota over the past month, but no significant injuries or deaths.

The river has been rising for weeks as the corps releases increasing amounts of water from its upstream dams to make room in reservoirs for heavy spring rain and late snowmelt. Releases at Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota hit the maximum planned amount of 150,000 cubic feet of water per second Tuesday, and the corps doesn't plan to reduce the amount it's releasing from its dams until August at the earliest.

National Weather Service hydrologist Dave Pearson said the river levels are expected to remain high, and any significant rainfall could push the river higher.

"Any rain we get below Gavins Point is unregulated and flows right into the river," Pearson said.

That's why officials still predict the river downstream of the six dams could still swell to levels 5 to 7 feet above flood stage at most places in Nebraska and Iowa, and rise as much as 10 feet above flood stage at some places in Missouri.

In Nebraska and Iowa, the river remained about 1 foot below those levels on Thursday.

Col. Bob Ruch, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district commander in Omaha, said there are no plans to deliberately breach a levee along the Missouri as the Corps did during flooding earlier this year along the Mississippi River.

Among the reasons, he said, is there is no place behind Missouri River levees for the water to go.

"Omaha and Council Bluffs, you can literally see water from bluff to bluff," Ruch said. "The space is just not available and there is no plan to do so."

In Omaha, officials announced Thursday an evacuation plan for the unlikely possibility of widespread flooding in Nebraska's biggest city. Officials said roughly 2,700 Omaha residents would have to evacuate in that worse-case scenario.

Assistant Omaha fire chief Dan Stolinski said such an evacuation order would only be issued in the event of massive levee breach.

___

Funk reported from Omaha, Neb. Associated Press writers Timberly Ross in Omaha, Dirk Lammers in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Chet Brokaw in Pierre, S.D., contributed to this report.

___

Online:

National Weather Service river forecast: http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfooax

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District: http://www.nwo.usace.army.mil

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City District: http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil

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Some Iowa residents dig in for Missouri River flooding (Reuters)

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (Reuters) – Iowa residents were evacuating flood-prone areas near the Missouri River on Friday and state transportation officials accelerated plans to close part of Interstate 29 due to fast-rising waters.

In Missouri Valley, Iowa, north of Council Bluffs, that meant that David Wilson, his wife Jan Wilson and their dog were left alone among homes evacuated for a three-block area, waiting for the river to reach them on the west side of town.

"All those people are gone," the gray-haired David Wilson said, pointing out vacant homes a mile from the Missouri River. "They're gone. They're gone. And they're gone."

Residents have been shoring up levees along the Missouri River from Montana through Missouri as federal officials reach toward record planned water releases to relieve pressure on six major reservoirs swollen by heavy rains and melting snow.

Six dams from Fort Peck in Montana to Gavins Point on the South Dakota-Nebraska border are at peak releases now, or are planned to reach them by mid June, and hold them to at least mid August.

The river runs freely below Gavins Point for more than 800 miles to the Mississippi River, making those maximum releases planned to start Tuesday a focus for residents along the Lower Missouri, including those in Missouri Valley.

"I'm going to stay here as long as I can," Wilson said. "If the water comes up to the door, I'll put my waders on and get in my boat, which will be parked out front."

Wilson said he was pouring $1,000 into a barricade of concrete, wood and dirt to keep the basement of the house he bought in 1993 from flooding. He has sump pumps, and a generator if power is cut off.

Iowa transportation officials closed a 10-mile section of Interstate 29 north of Council Bluffs late Thursday, earlier than expected because of faster rising floodwaters.

HAMBURG LEVEE WORK CONTINUES

Flooding has disrupted Amtrak rail service on the Empire Builder through North Dakota and the California Zephyr that runs through Omaha. The U.S. Coast Guard has closed about 260 miles of the Missouri to boaters from Gavins Point south to where the borders of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri meet.

In southwest Iowa, contractors were racing Friday to finish a secondary levee to protect Hamburg from an expected failure of a Missouri River levee that has had three partial breaches.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has little confidence the levee will withstand the full weight of the Missouri. About 300 of Hamburg's 1,200 residents are under mandatory evacuation.

"The Corps is still working hard to get the extra protection of the city dike around Hamburg finished because it is just a matter of time ... before it goes," said Mike Crecelius, emergency management director for Fremont County where Hamburg is located.

"It's not if it goes, it is when it goes."

Corps officials have warned more breaches are likely given the varying strengths of the flood protections and the height, speed and duration of planned water releases.

Heavy Montana rains this week have sharply increased flows into the Fort Peck reservoir, forcing the Corps to increase releases to 60,000 cubic feet per second on Friday, from previous plans for a rate of 50,000.

The Corps has said the Garrison Dam reservoir above Bismarck can handle the additional releases from Fort Peck and has left intact its planned maximum releases at 150,000 cubic feet per second from the other five dams.

Montana officials on Friday reported scores of impassable roads and bridges and worsening flooding in the Missouri River valley, as well as in the Columbia River basin on the other side of the Continental Divide.

Dozens of families evacuated Sun River west of Great Falls when water up to 3 feet deep spilled over from the Sun River, and Roundup in central Montana was accessible only by boat or helicopter due to flooding on the Musselshell River.

On Thursday, a levee breach prompted evacuation warnings for residents near the confluence of the Clark Fork River and Rock Creek east of Missoula in the Columbia River basin.

West of Missoula, the Corps raced to build levees along the Clark Fork after overflows flooded some basements.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis, Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho, and Kay Henderson in Des Moines; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Army Engineers, National Guard Fight Missouri River Flooding (ContributorNetwork)

The Missouri River flows for 2,341 miles, the longest river in North America. Its watershed covers all or part of 10 states and it is regulated by six major dams operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. Heavy rains and a large winter snow pack have brought the river to record levels. States throughout the watershed have activated National Guard units to assist local and state authorities in the ongoing flood fight.

Montana

The Montana National Guard is working at several sites in the state. Troops are working traffic control points in the Crow Agency and near Roundup, according to the Billings Gazette, preventing civilians from using roads or bridges that are unsafe due to flooding. Both the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers in the state are continuing to rise.

The Fort Peck dam and reservoir represent the largest of the Corps projects on the Missouri. The dam is releasing excess water from the reservoir.

North Dakota

In North Dakota, both the Missouri and its tributaries are rising. Minot and Bismark are the major cities impacted, according to the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System. The North Dakota National Guard has spent weeks raising levee heights and preparing temporary levees. The troops are now concentrating on levee patrol and traffic control checkpoints. 15.5 miles of levees are being patrolled by the Guard, looking for damage, sand boils and seepage. 1,200 National Guard soldiers and airmen are activated at this time.

Water levels remain high in Bismark. Flooding in Bismark is due to water releases from the Garrison Dam. The Corps of Engineers has been forced to open the spillway gates at the dam for the first time. The Missouri River is above flood stage at this time and is expected to crest in mid-June at least two feet higher than its current level.

South Dakota

In Pierre, S.D., the Missouri River remains nearly six feet above flood stage. Located just up river from the city is the Oahe Dam and Reservoir, another Army Corps of Engineers flood control project. Water releases from this dam began in late May. The spillway gates at Big Bend Dam have also been opened. This is the first time in history the spillway gates have been opened to release flood waters. This dam and lake are downstream from Pierre.

The South Dakota Army National Guard has almost 1,300 soldiers and airmen working on flood control activities. The missions are identical to those in other states: sandbagging, levee construction and patrol, traffic control and potential rescues.

Nebraska

Both the Platte and the Missouri rivers are flooding in Nebraska, reports the Omaha World-Herald. The City of Omaha has extensive levee protection from the Missouri, and the Corps of Engineers projects that the river will remain at least four feet below the levee tops through August. 59 National Guardsmen have been activated, most to help seal a levee breech along the Platte.

Iowa

Some 400 members of the Iowa National Guard, with Air Guardsmen from Minnesota and Illinois, are working on a number of flood control projects, including sandbagging, flight operations in support of flood control missions and levee patrols. The Missouri is currently 2.8 feet above flood level in Sioux City, Iowa.

Missouri

Missouri is where the Missouri River finally empties into the Mississippi. Missouri National Guard personnel are waiting, according to the Monitor. While still involved in the recovery efforts from the EF5 tornado that struck Joplin, Mo., they are moving back into flood fighting mode. They have already spent weeks on Mississippi River flooding, with the last unit ending its work the morning after the Joplin tornado.

The Missouri is five feet above flood stage at St. Joseph. At Jefferson City, it is just inches below flood stage.

Upstate New York resident Charles Simmins brings 30 years of accounting and finance experience and a keen interest in military affairs to the news of the day. His years of experience working with the personnel of the Secretary of Defense's New Media activity on Bloggers' Roundtables provide insights often overlooked by other reporters.

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More rain could worsen flooding along Missouri River (Reuters)

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (Reuters) – Unwelcome waves of thunderstorms dumped rain and hail in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa on Thursday and heavy rain fell in Montana this week that could make historic Missouri River flooding worse.

At Omaha, Nebraska, the Missouri River reached 30.4 feet overnight, the second highest level behind the historic 1952 flood, and federal officials said a levee near Hamburg, Iowa, sustained a third partial breach on Thursday morning.

Iowa officials said they were preparing to close parts of Interstate 29 from Sioux City to Council Bluffs by late Friday, including a section that runs by Missouri Valley, Iowa.

"Nobody knows how much we'll get," said Jeff Ellis, owner of several gas stations/convenience stores in Missouri Valley, Iowa, and across the river in Blair, Nebraska, of the flooding. "Two feet, zero feet, nobody knows. It's all a guess."

Slow moving storms dumped rain across Missouri Valley on Thursday afternoon, causing street flooding along U.S. Highway 30, which runs east-west through town. At an Ellis station, 15 people soaked to the skin heaved hundreds of sandbags.

"I grabbed a bunch of college kids and high school guys from Blair, good guys," Ellis said, shaking his head as rain poured down. "We're going to sandbag the front and the side."

Rain is forecast for six of the next seven days in the area around Omaha, but more across the river in Iowa.

"I'm sure to those who are monitoring how much water is being stored and released from reservoirs ... I'm sure any rainfall would be considered a concern to them," said Jim Meyer, meteorologist in charge for the National Weather Service in the Omaha area.

Meyer said a lot of the precipitation has already been factored into forecasts given to federal officials.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers added to planned water releases from the Fort Peck Dam in Montana for a second consecutive day due to hard rains.

About 260 miles of the Missouri have been closed to boaters from Gavins Point Dam south to where the borders of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri meet. That is near where sandbags were dropped by helicopter to patch a partial levee breach Sunday that threatens the town of Hamburg, Iowa.

The Corps does not expect the levee repairs to withstand the full weight of the Missouri and contractors are racing to raise a secondary levee to protect Hamburg by June 14, when peak water releases are planned from Gavins Point.

HEAVY MONTANA RAINS

From Montana through Missouri residents have been shoring up levees along the Missouri River ahead of planned record water releases from its six major dams to relieve pressure on reservoirs swollen by heavy rains and melting snow.

Volunteers were placing sandbags around a Warren Distribution facility in Council Bluffs on Thursday across the Missouri River from Omaha.

The river has six dams from Fort Peck in Montana to Gavins Point on the South Dakota-Nebraska border. It runs freely below Gavins Point the more than 800 miles to the Mississippi River, making that dam a focus for people along the Lower Missouri.

All of the dams are planned to reach maximum release rates by about mid June and hold them through at least mid August.

Up to five inches of rain fell in parts of Montana from Monday through Wednesday, forcing the Corps to increase planned releases to 60,000 cubic feet per second at Fort Peck and warn that the rate could be increased from there.

The Montana rains forced fresh evacuations due to overflows on tributaries, including in Nashua downstream of Fort Peck, and in flood-battered Roundup on the Musselshell River.

The Corps said the Garrison Dam reservoir above Bismarck, North Dakota, had capacity to handle the additional releases from Fort Peck and has left intact its planned maximum releases at 150,000 cubic feet per second from the other five dams.

The Missouri River forms the northwest portion of the Mississippi River basin that stretches from Montana to western New York and funnels water south into the Gulf of Mexico.

Thousands of South Dakota and North Dakota residents have voluntarily left homes in communities protected by hastily built sandbag barriers and levees ahead of peak releases.

On Thursday, officials cautioned that the sustained record flows could still threaten levees in the Dakotas now holding.

Corps officials also have warned that more breaches like the one near Hamburg are likely given the varying strengths of the flood protections and the height, speed and duration of planned releases of water from reservoirs.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis, James Kelleher in Chicago and Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho; Editing by Greg McCune and Jerry Norton)

(Corrects paragraph 14 to reflect that Warren Distribution was conducting sandbag operation, not Ameristar Casino)