After record run-off and flooding on the Missouri River last year, it appears river flows this year will be below-normal. Jody Farhat is chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Office for the U-S Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha. Farhat says their predictions will be welcome news to those who had flood damage last year. “Our run-off forecast for the 2012 calendar year above Sioux City, Iowa, is 21.6-million acre feet which is 87% of normal,” Farhat says. “This is based on the lack of Plains snowpack, the lower-than-average mountain snowpack and the unusually warm and dry conditions we’ve had so far this year.” Farhat says the Corps will be able to maintain normal flows on the river until at least July first. “We’re currently providing full-service navigation flow support,” she says. “If the total system storage falls below 57-million acre feet on July first, flow support will be reduced for the second half of the navigation season.”

Farhat says some normal signs of life are also returning to the river, including two types of endangered birds.”To date, 51 piping plover nests have been located, with the highest number of nests on Lewis & Clark Lake and on the river reach below Gavins Point Dam,” she says. “Very few nests have been found on the new habitat that was created below Gavins Point Dam due to last year’s flood. The first interior least tern was spotted in the basin this week but no least tern nests have been found.” Last year’s flooding of the Missouri River in eastern Nebraska, western Iowa and northwest Missouri caused hundreds of millions of dollars damage to homes, businesses, farmland and infrastructure. The high water lasted months.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Missouri River governors plan to question a top officer for the Army Corps of Engineers about the agency’s plans for stopping future floods. North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple  is hosting today’s (Wednesday’s) meeting in Bismarck. The governors of South Dakota and Kansas and the lieutenant governors of Nebraska and Iowa plan to attend in person. The governors of Montana and Missouri are listening in by telephone.
 
Brig. Gen. John McMahon is commander of the region that oversees the management of the Missouri River and its network of dams. He’ll be briefing the state officials on the corps’ flood-control plans.  States along the Missouri River sustained hundreds of millions of dollars in flood damage last year. Dalrymple says the governors want to know about federal plans for preventing another disaster.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a Villisca man was arrested Tuesday evening on Criminal Mischief and Burglary charges, after authorities were called to investigate an assault in the 100 block of West 2nd Street, in Villisca. 20-year old Jesse Luft was taken into custody at around 5:20-p.m.  He faces 4th Degree Criminal Mischief and 1st Degree Burglary charges. Luft was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $25,000 bond.

Temperatures are rising and gasoline prices are falling, a welcome combination for Iowans who are planning Memorial Day weekend getaways. Gail Weinholzer, spokeswoman for Triple-A-Iowa, says the motor club is predicting about 35-million Americans will be traveling at least 50 miles away from home over the upcoming holiday. “That’s about a one-and-a-half percent increase over last year,” Weinholzer says. “Certainly, the downward pressure on fuel prices in April has done a lot to encourage people to travel after a rather wicked February and March that we had as far as gas prices.”

She says there’s a direct correlation between the drop in fuel costs and the expected rise in travel. Earlier this year, analysts predicted gas would hit four-dollars a gallon in the Midwest, perhaps a buck higher on the coasts. “But mercifully, in April, we saw a reduction in 23 out of the 30 days in gas prices and that’s gone a long ways in helping people plan their Memorial Day travel,” Weinholzer says. “Unless there’s some sort of significant political or environmental impact, it should remain that way through the summer.” The average price of gas has fallen in recent weeks in Iowa and Weinholzer was asked if it would keep falling.”I don’t know if we’ll continue to see it drop, certainly we’ll see a stabilization at the very least,” she says. “When we were looking at crude oil prices in March being $108 a barrel, that was pretty steep. They’re down now to about $94 a barrel.” The current average gas price in Iowa is three-47 a gallon, down from three-85 a year ago. The current U-S average is three-68.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)