Improving forecasts for rain-on-snow flooding

Many of the worst West Coast winter floods pack a double punch. Heavy rains and melting snow wash down the mountains together to breach riverbanks, wash out roads and flood buildings.

These events are unpredictable and difficult to forecast. Yet they will become more common as the planet warms and more winter precipitation falls as rain rather than snow.

University of Washington mountain hydrology experts are using the physics behind these events to better predict the risks.

"One of the main misconceptions is that either the rain falls and washes the snow away, or that heat from the rain is melting the snow," said Nicholas Wayand, a UW doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering. He will present his research Dec. 18 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Most of the largest floods on record in the western U.S. are associated with rain falling on snow. But it's not that the rain is melting or washing away the snow.

Instead, it's the warm, humid air surrounding the drops that is most to blame for the melting, Wayand said. Moisture in the air condenses on the cold snow just like water droplets form on a cold drink can. The energy released when the humid air condenses is absorbed by the snow. The other main reason is that rainstorms bring warmer air, and this air blows across the snow to melt its surface. His work support previous research showing that these processes provide 60 to 90 percent of the energy for melting.

Places that experience rain-on-snow flooding are cities on rivers that begin in the mountains, such as Sacramento, California, and Centralia, Washington. In the 1997 New Year's Day flood in Northern California, melting snow exacerbated flooding, which broke levees and caused millions of dollars in damage. The biggest recent rain-on-snow event in Washington was the 2009 flood in the Snoqualmie basin. And the Calgary flood in summer of 2013 included snow from the Canadian Rockies that caused rivers to overflow their banks.

The UW researchers developed a model by recreating the 10 worst rain-on-snow flooding events between 1980 and 2008 in three regions: the Snoqualmie basin in Washington state, the upper San Joaquin basin in central California and the East North Fork of the Feather River basin in southern California.

Their results allow them to gauge the risks for any basin and any incoming storm. The three factors that matter most, they found, are the shape of the basin, the elevation of the rain-to-snow transition before and during the storm, and the amount of tree cover. Basins most vulnerable to snowmelt are treeless basins with a lot of area within the rain-snow transition zone, where the precipitation can fall as snow and then rain.

Trees reduce the risk of flooding because they slow the storm's winds.

"If you've ever been in a forest on a windy day, it's a lot calmer," Wayand said. That slows the energy transferred from condensation and from contact with warm air to the snowpack.

Simulations also show that meltwater accounted for up to about a quarter of the total flooding. That supports earlier research showing that snow is not the main contributor to rain-on-snow floods, but cannot be neglected since it adds water to an already heavy winter rainstorm.

The complexity of mountain weather also plays a role.

"The increase in precipitation with elevation is much greater than usual for some of these storms," said Jessica Lundquist, a UW associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "Higher flows can result from heavier rainfall rates at higher elevations, rather than from snowmelt."

In related work, Lundquist's group has developed a tennis-ball snow sensor and is measuring growth and melt of the snowpack in the foothills east of Seattle. The scientists aim to better understand how changes in climate and forestry practices might affect municipal water supplies and flood risks.

Wayand and another student in the group have developed a high school curriculum for Seattle teachers to explain rain-on-snow events and the physics behind why they occur. They hope to begin teaching the curriculum sometime next year.

The other collaborator on the work being presented in San Francisco is Martyn Clark at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.

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Irene flooding left Vt. home on unexpected island (AP)

BETHEL, Vt. – June Tierney and Kellie Burke never envisioned island living in the Vermont woods, but Tropical Storm Irene had other ideas.

Their home, a two-story, natural-sided saltbox, was a rural idyll on a wooded 10-acre lot off a dirt road, with a stairway leading from their backyard down a steep bank to Gilead Brook, a small stream.

When Irene blew through Vermont on Aug. 28, the brook became a raging torrent. After the storm, the main part of it had moved around to the other side of the house, leaving a smaller stream still flowing along its old bed.

Now Tierney, a 47-year-old lawyer who works for the state board that regulates utilities, and Burke, 48-year-old high school librarian, have to cross a ford — a new, narrow road that dips into the old stream and has no guardrails — to get home, and face an uncertain future. They wonder if they should cut their losses and move.

Their biggest worry is whether the next time the river runs wild, it will take the house with it.

"If we stay we're facing a huge expense to try to secure the property," Tierney said. And there's no long-term guarantee it will succeed. She quoted one stream-flow expert the couple consulted: "That river really wants your land."

The months since the storm have been a whirl of talks with their homeowners' and flood insurance companies, getting the ford built across the old stream bed, pricing what a real bridge would cost ($164,000), applying for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and accepting with gratitude an outpouring of help from neighbors and friends.

"People have been so helpful. It's been an inspiration," Burke said.

For a time, Tierney and Burke worried that their status as a lesbian couple married under Vermont law might cause a snag in getting assistance from a federal government that doesn't recognize such marriages. So far, they've had no problems.

When the brook swirled around the house, it undermined a barn, which had to be demolished. It turned what had been their wooded property into a wasteland of felled trees, root balls, boulders and silt. And it left a line of debris that came to within a few feet of the front porch.

The homeowners' insurance paid $20,000 on the barn. Flood insurance wasn't available because there was no damage to the house, Tierney said. They got the maximum emergency grant from FEMA — $30,200, half of which paid the cost of the ford — essentially a low-lying causeway across the old stream with culverts carrying water underneath — and to study the feasibility of building a new bridge.

Now the question is whether the couple will be eligible for grant money under a federally backed program that pays property owners living in the most flood-prone areas to abandon their homes and move.

They've been relying on their professional skills to work their way through the crisis.

Burke, the librarian, researched the program, while Tierney put her legal skills to researching the arcane federal regulations governing eligibility for the grants. Officials initially told her and Burke that they would get no help because their home was not harmed.

Tierney wrote in a long email to state and federal officials — she calls it her brief — that the category of eligible properties extends to one like hers that are at risk of future flooding because of how the storm changed the topography of the surrounding land.

Even if she and Burke lose in these arguments, she wants that to have been a just result, Tierney said. "When economic disaster follows natural disaster, we at least have to know it's because of the shortcomings of the program, and not because it's been misconstrued."

Tierney and Burke say it's very likely they'll have to leave the home they've shared for 13 of their 25 years together, but don't want to sell it, because that would just leave someone else facing the same risks.

"This is a potentially lethal setting," Tierney said. "It's not fit for human habitation."

Burke called the need to move "very sad." Since the flood, "it's not been easy to live here, but it's our home."

Tierney noted that like the town of Bethel, Gilead Brook takes its name from the Bible, where it's not a stream, but a mountain of testimony, of witness. Living in a home that now appears to have been built in the wrong place, she said, "We've literally been bearing witness to what it means to try to reconcile nature's intentions with those of human beings."

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Irene flooding left Vt. home on unexpected island (AP)

BETHEL, Vt. – June Tierney and Kellie Burke never envisioned island living in the Vermont woods, but Tropical Storm Irene had other ideas.

Their home, a two-story, natural-sided saltbox, was a rural idyll on a wooded 10-acre lot off a dirt road, with a stairway leading from their backyard down a steep bank to Gilead Brook, a small stream.

When Irene blew through Vermont on Aug. 28, the brook became a raging torrent. After the storm, the main part of it had moved around to the other side of the house, leaving a smaller stream still flowing along its old bed.

Now Tierney, a 47-year-old lawyer who works for the state board that regulates utilities, and Burke, 48-year-old high school librarian, have to cross a ford — a new, narrow road that dips into the old stream and has no guardrails — to get home, and face an uncertain future. They wonder if they should cut their losses and move.

Their biggest worry is whether the next time the river runs wild, it will take the house with it.

"If we stay we're facing a huge expense to try to secure the property," Tierney said. And there's no long-term guarantee it will succeed. She quoted one stream-flow expert the couple consulted: "That river really wants your land."

The months since the storm have been a whirl of talks with their homeowners' and flood insurance companies, getting the ford built across the old stream bed, pricing what a real bridge would cost ($164,000), applying for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and accepting with gratitude an outpouring of help from neighbors and friends.

"People have been so helpful. It's been an inspiration," Burke said.

For a time, Tierney and Burke worried that their status as a lesbian couple married under Vermont law might cause a snag in getting assistance from a federal government that doesn't recognize such marriages. So far, they've had no problems.

When the brook swirled around the house, it undermined a barn, which had to be demolished. It turned what had been their wooded property into a wasteland of felled trees, root balls, boulders and silt. And it left a line of debris that came to within a few feet of the front porch.

The homeowners' insurance paid $20,000 on the barn. Flood insurance wasn't available because there was no damage to the house, Tierney said. They got the maximum emergency grant from FEMA — $30,200, half of which paid the cost of the ford — essentially a low-lying causeway across the old stream with culverts carrying water underneath — and to study the feasibility of building a new bridge.

Now the question is whether the couple will be eligible for grant money under a federally backed program that pays property owners living in the most flood-prone areas to abandon their homes and move.

They've been relying on their professional skills to work their way through the crisis.

Burke, the librarian, researched the program, while Tierney put her legal skills to researching the arcane federal regulations governing eligibility for the grants. Officials initially told her and Burke that they would get no help because their home was not harmed.

Tierney wrote in a long email to state and federal officials — she calls it her brief — that the category of eligible properties extends to one like hers that are at risk of future flooding because of how the storm changed the topography of the surrounding land.

Even if she and Burke lose in these arguments, she wants that to have been a just result, Tierney said. "When economic disaster follows natural disaster, we at least have to know it's because of the shortcomings of the program, and not because it's been misconstrued."

Tierney and Burke say it's very likely they'll have to leave the home they've shared for 13 of their 25 years together, but don't want to sell it, because that would just leave someone else facing the same risks.

"This is a potentially lethal setting," Tierney said. "It's not fit for human habitation."

Burke called the need to move "very sad." Since the flood, "it's not been easy to live here, but it's our home."

Tierney noted that like the town of Bethel, Gilead Brook takes its name from the Bible, where it's not a stream, but a mountain of testimony, of witness. Living in a home that now appears to have been built in the wrong place, she said, "We've literally been bearing witness to what it means to try to reconcile nature's intentions with those of human beings."

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Thailand flooding damages its ancient capital (AP)

By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Denis D. Gray, Associated Press – Sun Nov 13, 9:34 am ET

AYUTTHAYA, Thailand – Water fowl, monitor lizards and stray dogs have replaced the throngs of tourists at one of Thailand's greatest historical sites. Record flooding has turned Ayutthaya's ancient temples into islands, and a giant statue of the reclining Buddha appears to float miraculously on the lapping water.

Experts fear that at least half of the more than 200 waterlogged monasteries, fortresses and other monuments in the one-time royal capital have been damaged.

"Imagine a thousand tons of brick and stone resting on soft foundations, with no modern-style pilings. We are very worried," said Chaiyanand Busayarat, director of the Ayutthaya Historic Park.

And as floodwaters recede, some experts are proposing a radical change to prevent similar disasters in the future: Turn back the clock about four centuries to emulate the city's urban planners and engineers of that time.

"We can't prevent flooding so we have to learn to live with water again, like those who created Ayutthaya. Let's take out the old city maps," said Anek Sihamat, deputy director-general of the Thai government's Fine Arts Department.

He recommended digging up old canals that have been paved over for roads and curbing the urban sprawl and industrial parks that block the natural runoff of water.

Capital of a powerful state for 417 years, seat of 33 kings, Ayutthaya has been described as one of the greatest cities on water ever, with a canal network that measured more than 85 miles (140 kilometers). Built on the flood plain of central Thailand at the confluence of three rivers, it was inundated annually, but its citizens lived in stilt-raised houses and used boats for transport.

Water also defended Ayutthaya, which once held as many as 1 million residents, until a brutal sacking by the Burmese in 1767 forced relocation of the capital to Bangkok, 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the south — where the same floodwaters that inundated Ayutthaya are now nearing the inner city.

The surge of water from the northern highlands, which began in late July and has killed more than 520 people, is the worst since the 1940s, although Ayutthaya experiences flooding almost every monsoon season.

In coming weeks, experts will assess damage and determine what will be needed to revive and protect the city, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1991.

Advisers from Venice and the Netherlands, two places that have grappled with the challenges of watery environments, are prepared to come, while several countries, including Germany and Japan, have provided or promised funds. Anek, the Fine Arts official, estimated that some $20 million will be needed.

"Clearly what we hope for from this experience will be a more solid, more thorough flood mitigation plan," said Tim Curtis, head of the culture unit at UNESCO's regional office in Bangkok.

He said that Amsterdam's 19th-century water-based defense line — another World Heritage site — and Venice may be used as models.

Witthaya Pewpong, the Ayutthaya provincial governor, said a dam has been proposed to shield the historic area while flooding would be eased by setting aside a large, construction-free area of the nearby countryside to absorb excess water.

Nevertheless, authorities "know that they will have to learn to live with water because it will always be there," said UNESCO cultural expert Montira Horayangura Unakul. As such, urban planning should be consistent with Ayutthaya's design as a city of water, she said.

To date, Ayutthaya has not scored well on the urban management front. The city of 82,000 people is mushrooming helter-skelter and has bid to host World Expo 2020. Four years ago, amid concern in Thailand that UNESCO might take the city off its list, one Bangkok newspaper wrote that the city was destroyed twice, "first by invading Burmese, and now by greedy and insensitive Thais."

Adding to its watery woes, said Curtis, are problems common to heritage sites: the looting of artifacts, inadequate waste disposal, corrosive vehicle fumes, ugly and inappropriate new construction and mass tourism.

There's also a running battle between heritage and municipal authorities, often allied with business interests.

The Fine Arts Department controls development in the core historic area of some 1.2 square miles (3 square kilometers), where no structures more than 26 feet (8 meters) are permitted. However, it exercises little power in outlying zones, which include numerous important monuments and where modern buildings have sprouted next to graceful relics of the past.

Most immediately, however, heritage authorities are focused on the floods.

With water up to 10 feet (3 meters) high flooding the area for weeks, there is concern that the foundations of larger structures may have been undermined, and bricks, plasterwork and murals damaged. Visitor facilities and once grassy areas emerging as a sea of mud will need to be restored at what is one of the country's top tourist destinations.

Also worrisome is salt residue that seeps up with the groundwater, causing damage to monuments.

Park director Chaiyanand said the stupas, or Buddhist reliquary, in Ayutthaya were built with an outer core of brick. The hollow portions inside were filled with sand. When the floods came, the water was absorbed upward into this inner chamber of sand, which became heavier. He fears the weight could cause cracks of the outer brick shell.

Water that is hard to detect and remove may also remain within walls after the floodwaters recede. Chaiyanand said he was particularly concerned about the bricks that were the key building blocks of old Ayutthaya.

"They're like crackers," he said, noting the mossy, water-stained bricks at the base of a stupa at the 15th-century Phra Srisanphet monastery. "When soaked they become easy to break."

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Naples braces for flooding after heavy rains (AP)

ROME – The mayor of Naples ordered a much-awaited soccer match scrapped Sunday for fear tens of thousands of fans could be trapped by flooding, while in northern Italy authorities closely monitored the rain-swollen Po river.

Luigi De Magistris said he ordered the Serie A match between Napoli and Juventus postponed to some later date, partly because the field was already soggy, but mainly because of concern some 65,000 fans could be trapped in flooding or cause traffic problems as they drove to or from the stadium.

The sprawling outdoor ruins of ancient Pompeii on the outskirts of Naples were temporarily closed for fear of flooding, but later were reopened to tourists, authorities said.

The area has been pounded by torrential rain that has already claimed one life. Near the Naples suburb of Pozzuoli, a tree fell on a car, killing the driver, local fire chief Giovanni Fricano told Sky TG24.

Much of Italy, especially the northwest, has been pummeled by heavy rains and flooding over the last two weeks. The latest worry in the north concerned the Po river, the waters of which swelled from two rain fed-tributaries, the head of Italy's Civil Protection agency, Franco Gabrielli said. He told reporters that Sunday evening could be a crucial time for the Po's level, if the rain becomes heavier.

A bridge across a Po tributary, the Pellice stream, in the countryside outside Turin, collapsed Sunday as waters rushed through, the Italian news agency ANSA said. No injuries were reported.

Flash flooding in the center of Genoa, on the Liguria sea, killed six people Friday, including several people who took shelter in a doorway along a major street when flood waters came barreling down on them.

Elsewhere in northwestern Italy, hillside towns in the Cinque Terre tourist area were still shoveling out from tons of mud from earlier flooding that claimed nine lives in Liguria and Tuscany.

Much of largely mountainous Italy is geologically fragile, as people build homes on the slopes of hillsides, leaving them vulnerable for mudslides.

In neighboring France, 11 regions were on alert Sunday after heavy rains in the touristic Var and Alpes-Maritime regions swelled rivers and left some towns under water, forcing hundreds to evacuate.

According to the Var prefecture, at least 750 people were evacuated from flooded areas in the coastal towns of Frejus, Roquebrune and in Tourves, inland north of Toulon.

The heavy rain was marching westward toward the Atlantic, putting the Pyrenees region on alert.

At least one flood-related death has been reported in France. The body of a man was found Saturday morning on a riverbank in Lezignan-la-Cebe in the Herault region. Officials there said the victim was likely a homeless German who lived in a van and was reported missing Friday.

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Rains, flooding kill dozens, maroon many in India (AP)

By BISWAJEET BANERJEE, Associated Press Biswajeet Banerjee, Associated Press – Mon Sep 26, 11:15 am ET

LUCKNOW, India – Monsoon rains destroyed mud huts and flooded wide swaths of northern and eastern India, killing at least 48 people in recent days and leaving hundreds of thousands marooned by raging waters, officials said Monday.

Those stranded took shelter atop trees, hills and rooftops in the eastern states of Orissa and Bihar and the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Rescue helicopters dropped food in hard-to-reach areas, while hundreds of boats ferried the stranded to safety.

But the rains, expected to continue for two more days, were holding up rescue efforts, officials said.

All 31 people killed over the weekend in Uttar Pradesh state died when the roofs of their mud houses collapsed, Relief Commissioner K.K. Sinha said. The state offered compensation of about $2,200 to victims' families.

"Many of them died in their sleep," said P.K. Upadhaya, a district magistrate in Jaunpur, where 18 of the deaths occurred. "Heavy rainfall hampered the rescue operation."

Another 17 people were swept away over the weekend by floodwaters in Orissa state, where more than 130,000 have been evacuated from low-lying areas near rivers that burst their banks, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister S.N. Patra said. Since the monsoons began in August more than 70 people have died in Orissa.

The state's chief minister widened the evacuation area this week, while the air force was ordered to send more aircraft to help.

Hundreds of thousands of people scrambled into trees or on top of buildings to escape the rising waters.

In Bihar state, soldiers rescued more than 200 people who were stranded when flood waters from the Sone River entered their village. At least 500,000 people have been affected by floods as torrential rains and overflowing rivers inundated central and southern Bihar, said Vyas Ji, a top official.

At least 12 districts in Bihar were flooded after authorities in neighboring Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh states released water from overflowing dams. Bihar's government has ordered engineers to cancel holidays and guard the embankments from further erosion, said Water Resources Minister Vijendra Choudhary.

___

Associated Press writer Indrajit Singh in Patna contributed to this report.

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100 Animals Die in Petco Store From Tropical Storm Lee Flooding (Time.com)

At least 100 animals died in a New York Petco store after the building was flooded by Tropical Storm Lee.

The animals, which included hamsters, rodents, reptiles, birds and aquatic life, were left in the Johnson City, N.Y., store during the storm. Whether they died from drowning or starvation has not been disclosed.

The building, near Binghamton, was evacuated and later besieged by flood waters. Store employees discovered the animals on Friday, the first day they were allowed to enter the pet store after the storm.

(LIST: Top 10 Strange Mass Animal Deaths)

The animal deaths reportedly could have been prevented. Marcie Whichard, a Petco executive, blamed the incident on miscommunication between the city and the store regarding evacuation orders.

On the company website, Petco CEO Jim Myers discussed the "unfortunate tragedy." Myers wrote, "Our store in Johnson City is relatively new, we were not operating the last time flooding threatened the community and we misjudged the risk to this location."

Despite the nearly 100 deaths, the majority of the animals were rescued, according to Myers. "We feel terrible that we did not do more to avoid this tragedy, are truly saddened by what has occurred, and accept full responsibility."

At the time of this writing, Myers' apology drew more than 1,000 comments, some claiming to have notified People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. A Facebook page has also cropped up for the boycott of Petco.

MORE: Top 10 Pets in Power

Kai Ma is a TIME contributor. Find her on Twitter at @Kai_Ma or on Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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Monsoon flooding kills 16 in eastern India (AP)

BHUBANESHWAR, India – Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 16 people in eastern India and left nearly 100,000 others homeless, an official said Monday.

Incessant rains have hit the coastal and western parts of Orissa state for 10 days and nearly 2,800 villages have been affected, said S.N. Patra, the minister in charge of disaster management.

The rain stopped in most areas by Sunday evening, but the region's main river, the Mahanadi, remained over the danger mark on Monday and about 800 villages were still cut off, Patra said.

He said the government has set up about 180 relief camps and army helicopters were dropping food and water packets for people stranded in remote villages.

The loss to crops and property is still being assessed, he said.

Patra said the deaths occurred over the last four days.

India's monsoon season, which runs from June through September, brings rains that are vital to agriculture but can also cause massive destruction.

Flooding, landslides and other rain-related events kill thousands of people each year.

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Louisiana coastal towns struggle with storm flooding (Reuters)

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Louisiana Gulf Coast towns and inland waterways struggled with flooding on Monday as the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee continued to test flood barriers but the city of New Orleans remained in fairly good shape.

Jerry Sneed, deputy mayor of public safety for New Orleans, reported no significant problems on Monday morning, with standing water remaining in only a few areas outside the levee protection system. No deaths were reported from the storm.

"Overall, things worked well, I think we did OK," he said.

As of 5:30 a.m., utility company Entergy reported no remaining power outages in New Orleans. At one point, some 38,000 homes in the area had lost power.

New Orleans was devastated in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, which flooded 80 percent of the city, killed 1,500 people and caused more than $80 billion in damage. Half of the city is below sea level, protected by levees and flood gates.

This time, the city fared better than its neighbors and out-lying areas.

The continuing tidal surge brought by strong southerly winds flooded about 20 homes in Slidell's Palm Lake subdivision, east of New Orleans, overnight as drainage arteries into Lake Pontchartrain backed up, leaving up to four feet of standing water.

The nearby Oak Harbor subdivision stayed on flood watch on Monday morning as Lake Pontchartrain's waters remained about three feet above normal.

By morning, as the tropical depression moved to the east, winds in the local area shifted to the north, beginning to help move the water back out of some flooded areas. But the shift didn't come soon enough for some areas.

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser complained bitterly of delays in improving levee protection as he joined crews continuing a losing battle against the water.

"Look at the people who suffered through four hurricanes and the oil spill," Nungesser said. "How much more can they take?"

Surging water overtopped an old levee on Sunday night, making the main highway through the parish impassable. Water flowed freely across Highway 23, flooding nearby pastureland.

HERDING CATTLE IN BOATS

Men used boats to herd about 30 head of struggling cattle to higher ground, forcing the animals to swim to the safety of a Mississippi River levee.

After Hurricane Katrina and the resulting flood devastated the New Orleans region in 2005, money was allocated to boost levee protection in the parish, Nungesser said. But the Army Corps of Engineers has not yet begun the construction work.

"It's frustrating to know the money is in the bank to rebuild this levee and we're out here fighting this," he said.

Grand Isle Mayor David Carmadelle said crews were working to reopen Louisiana Highway 1 south of Golden Meadow as the water recedes on Monday. He said serious erosion has occurred on the beach of Grand Isle, a barrier island, and he also complained that the Corps of Engineers has delayed construction of levees the agency has promised.

In coastal Terrebonne Parish, parish President Michel Claudet said the shifting wind was a relief. He said just three houses had been reported flooded. Some roads remain closed in low-lying areas of the parish, but "the rain's stopping and we're looking forward to the north winds," he said.

Claudet said an "aggressive elevation program" that helped finance the raising of about a thousand homes in the lower part of the parish in recent years helped prevent the widespread home flooding that could have occurred.

Meanwhile, a marsh fire that has burned some 1,500 acres in eastern New Orleans over the past week continued to smolder on Monday morning. Local officials had hoped rainfall that totaled up to 15 inches in recent days would extinguish the persistent fire, which they believe started with a lightning strike on combustible peat moss and other marsh brush.

Across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, water overtopped a levee outside a floodwall on the Harvey Canal, But officials said the wall, built after Hurricane Katrina, remains solid and should protect nearby homes.

To the north, across Lake Pontchartrain, some communities waited anxiously for shifting winds to carry floodwaters back into the lake. The Mandeville lakefront, where most homes and businesses are raised, remained closed Monday, with water still splashing over barriers.

Some areas of nearby Madisonville remained flooded from the water pushed over the banks of the Tchefuncte River.

(Writing and reporting by Kathy Finn; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Peter Bohan)

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Lee's remnants cause twisters, flooding in South (AP)

By HOLBROOK MOHR and DORIE TURNER, Associated Press Holbrook Mohr And Dorie Turner, Associated Press – 30 mins ago

ATLANTA – The destructive remnants of Tropical Storm Lee slithered farther north Tuesday morning after spawning tornadoes, flooding numerous roads, sweeping several people away and knocking out power to thousands. Record amounts of rain have fallen in parts of Tennessee, and more was expected.

Flash flood watches and warnings were in effect early Tuesday from the Appalachians northeastward into New England, according to the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center.

More than 9 inches of rain fell Monday in Chattanooga, and forecasters expected rain clouds to loom over the area through the next day. The rainfall beat an all-time mark for rain in 24 hours. Numerous roads were flooded, and even modest winds were pulling trees out of the soggy ground.

"We have had problems with trees coming down, mainly because the soil is so saturated with water," said National Weather Service forecaster David Gaffin in Morristown, Tenn.

To the south, forecasters expected rainfall to taper off in Alabama overnight after flooding numerous Birmingham roads. The weather also caused a roof to collapse at Pinson Valley High School outside Birmingham, according to The Birmingham News. No one was injured.

As many as 200,000 lost power across Alabama as the storm moved through, with most of the outages in the Birmingham area, Alabama Power spokeswoman Keisa Sharpe said. By early Tuesday, the number of outages was down to 187,000, she said. Power outages were also reported in Georgia and Tennessee.

The storm system churned up treacherous waters across the South. In Mississippi, a man drowned while trying to cross a swollen creek, while authorities called off the search for a missing swimmer presumed dead off Alabama. Another man was missing after trying to cross a creek in suburban Atlanta.

Chainsaws and blue tarps were coming out in Georgia neighborhoods hit by suspected twisters that ripped off siding and shingles and sent trees crashing through roofs. The Georgia Emergency Management Agency said about 100 homes were damaged there in Cherokee County, about 30 miles north of Atlanta.

To the southeast in Norcross, a man was swept away when he tried to cross a swollen creek between apartment complexes, Gwinnett County Fire Battalion Chief Dan Rowland said. The search was called off at nightfall, and body recovery operations were going to start Tuesday morning. A companion to the missing man was caught in the creek but managed to make it out of the water.

Mickey Swims and his wife hid in the basement of their house in Woodstock, Ga., as an apparent tornado passed.

"I heard it and saw the trees go around and around," Swims said. "I knew when I heard it that if it touched down, it was going to be bad."

Swims owns the Dixie Speedway, where he estimated the storm caused $500,000 worth of damage. That includes about 2,000 feet of chain-link fence uprooted from its concrete base, walls blown out of a bathroom and concession stands and tractor-trailer trucks turned into mangled messes.

Areas of Louisiana and Mississippi that bore the brunt of Lee over the weekend were also digging out. Lee's center came ashore Sunday in Louisiana, dumping up to a foot of rain in parts of New Orleans and other areas. Despite some street flooding, officials said New Orleans' 24-pump flood control system was doing its job.

Heavy rain fell in Mississippi on Monday, and a swollen creek near an apartment complex in Jackson prompted officials to move 45 families into a storm shelter. In Louisiana's Livingston Parish, about 200 families were evacuated because of flooding.

The man who died in Mississippi, 57-year-old John Howard Anderson Jr., had been in a car with two other people trying to cross a rain-swollen creek Sunday night. Tishomingo County Coroner Mack Wilemon said Anderson was outside of the car and couldn't hold onto a rope thrown by a would-be rescuer.

Jonathan Weeks, a 48-year-old salesman from Plantersville who owns a vacation home nearby, said he helped pull two people to shore and tried to save Anderson.

Weeks said he and his wife saw a van crossing the creek, and he happened to have a rope in the tool box of his truck.

"It all happened so fast. They were in there trying to get out and panicking. The power was out so everything was dark," Weeks recalled in a phone interview Monday.

"We threw them a rope and tied it to a tree," Weeks said. "We got two of them to the bank and were trying to help the driver. We had him on the rope and were trying to pull him in, but I don't think he was able to hold on."

Residents in Lee's wake are worrying about the effects of soggy ground. Part of a levee holding back a lake in Mississippi's Rankin County gave way, endangering some homes and a sod farm. Rankin County Road Manager George Bobo said officials could order evacuations of the few homes if the situation gets worse. The indention left by the levee slide didn't go all the way through to the water, though.

Sharon Spears, a 54-year-old special education teacher, stood in her front yard Monday looking up at the red dirt exposed from the levee slide.

"I'm concerned," Spears said. "I won't sleep any tonight."

Sandy Shamburger said a full breach would ruin his sod farm.

"It would be devastating. It would probably be the end of Rankin Sod," he said.

In Gulf Shores, Ala., surf churned up by the storm proved treacherous. The Coast Guard suspended its search for a swimmer who went missing Sunday. Local authorities were transitioning to efforts to find his body, said Maj. Anthony Lowery of the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office.

Elsewhere, the heavy rain made for a dud of a Labor Day holiday as Gulf Coast beaches mostly cleared of tourists. On Monday morning, the main road on Alabama's Dauphin Island was flooded and covered with sand, jellyfish and foam washed in by Lee. Customers trickled in to the town's largest store on what should have been a busy day.

"It's been kind of boring," said Tabitha Miller, a clerk at Ship and Shore. "It's not killing us though since we're the only gig in town."

___

Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Dauphin Island, Ala., and Randall Dickerson in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

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Hoboken orders evacuation of shelter after flooding (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Flood waters forced city officials in Hoboken, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, to evacuate a storm shelter late on Saturday night, the mayor of Hoboken Dawn Zimmer said on Twitter.

"Hoboken faces worst case scenario. Flooding has begun. Moving Wallace Shelter residents to state shelter in east Rutherford," the mayor's tweet said as Hurricane Irene approached the region.

A story earlier on website nj.com said there were only about 55 people at the Wallace School shelter in Hoboken as of 6 p.m. on Saturday.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said earlier shelters in New York City were far below capacity as many people sought shelter with friends and family, or stayed at home.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

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Riding Out Hurricane Irene as She Produces Flooding (ContributorNetwork)

FIRST PERSON | SUFFOLK, Va. -- Here comes Hurricane Irene. Hurricane Irene is headed toward North Carolina and then through Hampton Roads, Va. My family and myself are staying in Suffolk to ride out the storm. Some are staying while others are leaving to get out of Irene's way.

By looking skyward I can see that Irene is near. The clouds are getting dark and enclosing the area. The air feels cool to the touch and the sky looks as though it is ready to cry.

Stocked with water, food, and batteries we feel we are ready to ride out the storm. Gas tanks are full in case we have to escape after Irene leaves. My husband waited 20 minutes to get gas and many gas stations were sold out. I have heard reports of people sitting in traffic for hours trying to evacuate.

This may sound pessimistic but we are expecting to lose power as we have above ground power lines. With wind forces expected to reach up to 100-mph it would be foolish to expect power lines to stay intact.

We plan to sleep upstairs to avoid any possible flooding. Staying away from windows is a must once Irene takes landfall in our area. I have been through Hurricane Floyd, Hurricane Isabel, and Tropical Storm Bonnie while living in Hampton Roads. While on a Florida vacation my family and myself were trapped in a hotel room during Hurricane Jeanne. We were unprepared for Hurricane Jeanne which is why we were on vacation when a hurricane came through.

Here comes Hurricane Irene. You can see her coming as she darkens the sky with her veil. Soon she will be blowing leaves and possibly flooding grounds. At least she is kind enough to give warning unlike the East coast earthquake I experienced just days ago.

On Saturday, Irene is getting closer. The retention pond in the back yard is starting to flood as Hurricane Irene approaches. As I supposed yesterday Irene is flooding grounds. As I am sitting home with Fox News on the TV. New York residents are being told to evacuate.

As of now I still have power although we did lose power briefly as the T.V. went off and back on. Only time will tell what else Irene will bring to myself and others.

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Flash flooding kills at least three in Pittsburgh (Reuters)

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) – Flash flooding killed at least three people in Pittsburgh on Friday when heavy rains submerged cars in flood water that was nine feet deep in places, authorities said.

The three victims, identified as a woman and two children, died after their vehicle was pinned against a tree on Washington Boulevard and they were unable to escape, Michael Huss, the city's public safety director, said in a press conference broadcast in part on local KDKA-TV.

"We have crews that are continuing to search," he said.

Huss said the water was more than nine feet deep in some areas along the road, which is near the banks of the Allegheny River. An elderly woman remains unaccounted for, he said.

Some 18 cars were stranded in the flooding and 11 people had to be rescued, according to local media reports.

Accuweather.com said rescue crews had used inflatable rafts to reach stranded drivers. Power was out to 8,400 customers.

Earlier, the National Weather Service had issued a flash flood watch for Allegheny County as storms pounded the area.

(Writing by Cynthia Johnston. Editing by Peter Bohan)

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Flooding in Sparta, Mich., Leads to Questions About City Drain Maintenance (ContributorNetwork)

On Saturday, the National Weather Service had issued flash flood warnings, but the county that suffered the worst flooding wasn't even on the warning list: Sparta in Kent County. The flooding seems to have been caused by poor drain maintenance. Most of southwest lower Michigan was deluged in the torrential weekend rain. Sparta residents got hit with as much as four feet of flood water.

WZZM interviewed homeowners who had been pumping water from basements and crawl spaces. They say this was not the first time this summer that they were flooded. They had just begun to dry out from flooding several weeks ago. Although rain in west Michigan was heavy, it was not intense enough to create the amount of flooding experienced in Sparta. Residents fault poor drainage systems, lack of drain maintenance and drains filled with debris for the flooding.

Sparta residents are frustrated, not only by the damage and loss of property, but also the amount of labor it takes to clean up after a flood. One resident expressed concern that his furnace might be damaged. The City of Sparta has asked residents attend the next city council meeting to address flood damage issues.

Hunting up resources for floods, websites for flood insurance kept appearing. Even Floodsmart.gov, a government emergency preparedness site, promotes flood insurance for homeowners. Home insurance is expensive enough. Like vehicle insurance, homeowners insurance is as much about liability coverage as it is about property damage restitution. Oftentimes, the deductibles are so steep with homeowners' insurance that most people don't submit claims unless disaster befalls.

It doesn't make sense that Michigan residents should have to purchase additional flood insurance when flash floods don't affect most homeowners. Those who live directly on the Grand River or another Michigan river, may need to add flood coverage. Flooding like the kind that occurred in Sparta is not conditional for residents. Even the NWS did not put Sparta or Kent under flood watch. This shows that the flooding was not a predictable weather condition. These floods waters occurred as a result of poor city maintenance and lack of emergency preparedness on the drain commission's part.

Also, if residents purchase additional homeowners insurance, it sometimes gives city officials an excuse to avoid their own responsibilities. Property taxes are supposed to pay for city services, including upkeep, repair and maintenance. Homeowners should not have to pay extra to protect against damage caused by lack of preventative maintenance at city structures.

Residents in flooded areas are reminded to observe these basic safety precautions. Pedestrians should avoid flood waters. Six inches of water is enough to sweep a person off his feet. Heavy rain can cause soil erosion and unstable terrain. Motorists should avoid flood waters and be on the lookout for falling tree branches and flying debris. Flood waters of two feet can sweep a car away. Car tires can easily embed in mud and wet sand.

Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes about weather from 25 years teaching environmental, life and earth science.

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3 dead, 1 missing in Pittsburgh flash flooding (AP)

PITTSBURGH – Authorities say streets in Pittsburgh remained closed while about 40 rescue workers with dogs continuing searching for a woman who disappeared during flash flooding Friday and is presumed dead.

Raymond DeMichiei (DEE'-mich-eye), deputy director of the Pittsburgh Emergency Management agency, says the search for the missing woman was continuing Saturday morning.

Three people were killed in the flooding Friday. The medical examiner identified them Saturday as 45-year-old Kimberly Griffith of Plum, 12-year-old Brenna Griffith and 8-year-old Mikaela Griffith.

Authorities say they were unable to escape their vehicle, which was submerged and pinned to a tree.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Flash floods submerged more than a dozen vehicles in Pittsburgh, killing three people, leaving another missing and presumed dead, and forcing others to swim to safety or scramble onto the roofs of their cars.

A pair of storms pounded the city Friday, overwhelming the drainage system and causing manhole covers to pop off the road, officials said. Water rose to 9 feet in some places along Washington Boulevard, a main road that runs near the Allegheny River.

Rescue crews used inflatable boats to reach marooned drivers, though some swam to safety on their own. Rhodearland "Bob" Bailey of Penn Hills, who is about 80, was rescued from the roof of his car.

"I can swim a little bit and was looking at a tree branch," Bailey told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I heard one woman yelling for help, but the water was coming down so fast, I couldn't see. ... I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Lord have mercy."

The area received 2.1 inches of rain in an hour during the evening rush, said Rihaan Gangat, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. But an earlier storm meant the region was drenched by 3 to 4 inches of rain overall on Friday.

The three victims, a woman and two children whose names were not released, were unable to escape their vehicle, which was completely submerged and pinned to a tree, Pittsburgh public safety director Michael Huss said at a news conference.

Rescuers floated over the car without knowing it was below.

"The bottom of the boat didn't even scrape against the top of the car," said Raymond DeMichiei, deputy director of the city Office of Emergency Management.

A fourth person, a 70-year-old woman, was missing and presumed dead, police Chief Nate Harper said.

Harper said 18 vehicles were stranded in the high water and 11 people were rescued. One of the rescued women required hospital treatment.

People were clinging to trees, poles and car roofs, KDKA-TV reported. One woman scrambled tried to scramble to the roof of her car but the water was moving so fast, she was dragged along in it, then grabbed on to a truck.

"You started to see — even a red dump truck floating," Marion Marty of Sarver told the television station. "I mean, I never saw anything like it before in my life!"

The water had receded by Friday evening, but the mud-caked road will remain closed through Saturday as emergency crews work to clear all the stranded cars.

"Manhole covers started popping up and it looked like the road exploded and the waters came up really fast," Tara Howes, 34, of Gibsonia told the Tribune-Review. "I saw people swimming on the sides of the road. It was pretty scary."

The flash floods hit an area that experienced serious flooding last month. Rushing water from a July 18 storm stranded motorists and caused a section of road to buckle.

Claudia Gallagher, who was driving at the height of the rainfall Friday, said she tried to get off the road as the water rose.

"We tried to drive up onto the curb, but the water had other ideas," Gallagher, 55, of West Mifflin, told the Post-Gazette.

Her car began to float, and she opened her window and climbed onto the roof. Many other drivers nearby were sitting atop their cars, too, she said.

Earlier Friday, another storm caused power outages that led the University of Pittsburgh to close for the day. Parts of Carlow and Carnegie Mellon universities also lost electricity.

Flights at Pittsburgh International Airport were grounded because of lightning just after 3 p.m., spokeswoman JoAnn Jenny said.

Two hospitals operated on emergency power after rains flooded a substation in the city's Oakland neighborhood.

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Flooding submerges parts of North Dakota city (Reuters)

MINOT, North Dakota (Reuters) – The swollen Souris River whose waters deluged North Dakota's fourth-largest city of Minot, was expected to crest early on Sunday, with storms threatening to complicate efforts to contain the biggest flood in area history.

Local and federal officials worked feverishly to reinforce levees, protect the city's key infrastructure and care for thousands of residents forced to flee their submerged homes.

By Saturday evening, the Souris, which flows from Canada southeast into North Dakota, was at least 3.5 feet above the 130-year-old record it shattered on Friday.

Under current conditions, the river is expected to crest by Sunday morning at 3.8 feet above that record, according to the National Weather Service.

"We will continue to be at this highest level for the next several days," said Minot Mayor Curt Zimbelman, adding that the possibility of rain could complicate containment efforts.

"There is a cluster of thunderstorms that are pretty close to Minot now. It looks like a couple of inches of rain could impact some of the areas with flooding," said Rich Thompson, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.

There have been no reported deaths or injuries.

"There is still a tremendous amount of water and even when this crest has passed, there will be months of a recovery effort," U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Jeffrey DeZellar said.

"When the water goes down it relieves pressure on emergency levees, but there has been so much damage done to the community that there is going to be a tremendous recovery effort," DeZellar said.

Authorities were also trying to stop a walking bridge that collapsed in the middle of the river from crashing into a downriver dam, a Minot Fire Department official said. The bridge had not moved as of Saturday evening.

Floodwaters have all but swallowed more than 3,000 Minot-area homes, according to North Dakota Department of Emergency Services spokeswoman Cecily Fong.

Officials' attention has turned to displaced residents, more than 12,000 of whom heeded mandatory evacuation calls.

Some moved in with friends or family, but more than 250 people were holed up in Red Cross shelters at a city auditorium and Minot State University or at the Minot Air Force Base.

More evacuees were expected from the towns of Turtle Lake, Velva and Sawyer, among others, according to Allan McGeough, executive director of the mid-Dakota chapter of the Red Cross.

In Sawyer, about 16 miles southeast of Minot, 400 residents were told to evacuate after river water rushed through a downtown roadway, and as many as 300 people in Velva will require shelter, McGeough said.

Flood warnings have been issued from Burlington, northwest of Minot, through Logan and Sawyer to the southeast.

The massive flooding in Minot has overshadowed temporarily the widening deluge along the Missouri River that threatens cities from Montana through Missouri.

Federal officials have pushed record water releases from six reservoirs along the Upper Missouri River that are near capacity because of a deep melting snowpack and heavy rains.

Those reservoirs have little capacity for additional rain, and record releases are expected to continue through August, causing widespread flooding in Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri.

Heavy rains across the Souris River Basin left Canadian reservoirs over capacity. Water rushing down from Canada has forced U.S. officials to make record-large releases from the Lake Darling Dam above Minot and other communities.

(Writing by Eric Johnson; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst)

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Flooding overwhelms Montana, supplies ferried in (AP)

By MATTHEW BROWN and STEPHEN DOCKERY, Associated Press Matthew Brown And Stephen Dockery, Associated Press – Fri Jun 10, 7:56 pm ET

BILLINGS, Mont. – Emergency workers ferried supplies to more than 300 people cut off Friday by flooding that has overwhelmed Montana towns and caused an estimated $8.6 million in damages to date.

Heavy rain and the runoff from record mountain snowpack have caused rivers over much of the West to spill from their banks. Montana has been hit particularly hard over the past few weeks, with hundreds of homes inundated and scores of roadways swamped.

River levels were retreating throughout the state on Friday, but more rain this weekend was expected to cause flood waters to linger across southeastern Montana.

There, roads washed out by the raging Musselshell River left people in a sprawling rural neighborhood in the hills outside the town of Roundup with no way to get out.

Stranded residents were able to call in grocery orders that emergency officials delivered by boat, said Cassie Degner, a local volunteer firefighter. A trailer filled with water, diapers and other essentials had been brought into the neighborhood before access was lost Wednesday.

Mary Brower, 81, said she had not been able to get into town since May 20 and the roads have further deteriorated since that time.

"They're going to bring in my medications today by, I don't know, rowboat or whatever," said Brower, who suffers from congestive heart failure.

Up the road from Brower, rancher George Smith said he and his wife, Loris, were rationing gasoline but otherwise planned to get by with "a few cans of different stuff we have on hand."

"My wife makes corn bread and I'm a bean maker," Smith said. "We might get to fighting a little bit, but we're good for another week anyway."

Authorities in Roundup began pumping out a portion of the downtown that has been swamped twice since the Musselshell started to rise in late May. Workers also were scrambling to rebuild a makeshift dike along the edge of town that was overtopped and severely eroded earlier in the week.

The main highway out of Roundup to Billings reopened Friday after being closed for two days when it was under water.

Repairs on the road into the cut-off neighborhood were not expected to begin for several days because portions of it remained under water, said Musselshell County Commissioner Sue Olson. Another boatload of groceries and other supplies was to be ferried into the neighborhood Friday evening.

The Musselshell River was forecast to drop slightly Friday before rising again to stay above major flood stage until Sunday.

"As soon as the water comes down it comes back up. We're at the mercy of the river — and it's not so forgiving lately," Degner said.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer estimated the flooding has caused more than $8.6 million in damage across the state since the end of May.

That figure was included a Thursday letter to President Barack Obama in support of a previous request for a disaster declaration. Schweitzer's office said it could rise with additional damage.

The request for federal assistance covered 31 Montana counties and four Indian reservations. Schweitzer, who is traveling in China, reviewed the letter before it was sent to Obama, spokesman Jayson O'Neill said.

Several Montana rivers hit record levels this week. While many were receding Friday, flooding is ongoing in the basins of at least 10 major rivers across Montana.

The melting snow and rain caused the Army Corps of Engineers to release water from the Fort Peck Dam into the Missouri River at a record 60,000 cubic feet per second. That sent torrents of water gushing downstream, flooding low-lying areas of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and adding to flood pressures in North and South Dakota.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday said it would provide $600,000 each to Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming to be used immediately for emergency restoration projects.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement the funding targeted states where the record snowpack poses flooding risks. The money will be used for projects that could include removing debris caught in culverts and under bridges and efforts to prevent soil erosion.

In Utah, the National Guard used helicopters Friday to help fix a 30-foot-wide break in a levee that has begun flooding west Weber County.

The levee separating the swollen Weber River and a small canal broke Thursday, and troops at the site about 10 miles west of Ogden were putting 50 one-ton sandbags into place, said Weber County Sheriff's Lt. Mark Lowther.

The river is expected to remain above flood stage through the middle of June. Residents in the area already have sandbagged their homes but fear the worst after seeing their yards inundated.

Crews in eastern Idaho have lined sandbags around areas prone to flooding as steady showers and the melting snow caused flooding in lowland farm fields.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter flew over three eastern counties Thursday to get a sense of the flooding and meet with local officials bracing for rivers and creeks to swell even more. Last month, Otter signed a disaster declaration for Jefferson, Madison and Bingham counties, allowing officials to tap the state for sandbags, water pumps and technical support.

In Colorado, the Colorado River was flooding near Rifle. Officials in Greely closed several roads because of high water and debris. And turbid waters prompted officials to partially restrict access to the Cache la Poudre River.

The Larimer County sheriff's office said Friday that inner tubes, some types of air mattresses and small inflatable rafts have been banned from the river until the waters calm down. Restrictions could stay in place until early July.

In northern Wyoming, the Bighorn River was rising rapidly near Basin after more than 2 inches fell in the region. Some low-lying areas there were expected to flood Friday.

___

Dockery reported from Helena. AP writers Lynn DeBruin in Salt Lake City, Todd Dvorak in Boise, Idaho, and Bob Moen in Cheyenne, Wyo., also contributed to this report.

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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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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)

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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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