Zware overstromingen Midden VS, zorgen om kerncentrale

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Overstroming Missouri-rivier bedreigt kerncentrale
De overstroming van de Missouri, een zijrivier van de Mississippi, bedreigt de Fort Calhoun kerncentrale in Nebraska. Momenteel is de kerncentrale een met zandzakken omgeven eiland in het vloedwater. En er wordt verwacht dat het water nog met anderhalve meter zal stijgen.

De Fort Calhoun kerncentrale in Omaha, Nebraska, is momenteel volledig omgeven door het vloedwater van de Missouri. De bezorgdheid omtrent de veiligheid van de centrale die gelegen is in de uiterwaarden van de rivier (gebied tussen dijk en rivieroever) neemt toe.

Vorig jaar werd nog vastgesteld dat de centrale onvoldoende beschermd is tegen overstromingen. Momenteel is de centrale een met zandzakken omgeven eiland. Het water van de Missouri staat momenteel al een halve meter boven het overstromingspeil. Er wordt verwacht dat het nog anderhalve meter zal stijgen.

Toezichthouders van de overheid en ambtenaren van de Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) benadrukken dat er geen gevaar dreigt en hebben de laagste alarmfase afgekondigd. Volgens een woordvoerder van de OPPD is er geen radioactiviteit gelekt en verwacht men ook niet dat dit zal gebeuren.

Omdat men het luchtruim boven de centrale heeft afgesloten en er zich een brand in de centrale heeft voorgedaan die tijdelijk een koelpomp uitschakelde, verspreiden zich allerlei onrustwekkende geruchten.

Het luchtruim zou echter afgesloten zijn als reactie op de overstroming. En woordvoerders van het bedrijf verklaarden dat de verbruikte splijtstof nooit in gevaar is geweest tijdens de korte stroomonderbreking.

Hoewel het water van de Missouri blijft stijgen, houdt de overheid vast aan haar verklaring dat alles veilig is. De centrale is sinds 9 april volledig stilgelegd (koude shutdown). Dit zal zo blijven tot al het vloedwater zich heeft teruggetrokken. Men verwacht niet dat dit spoedig zal gebeuren.

Missouri River Flooding Reaches Iowa Town Levee

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Nebraska now a disaster area according to Obama
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman requests disaster declaration from President Obama as massive flooding plagues cities along the Missouri River.

On June 17, 2011, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman requested a disaster declaration from President Obama to "help save lives and protect property" as massive flooding continues to plague 17 counties along the Missouri and Platte River systems flowing through 380 miles of Nebraska cities and farmlands. The 17 counties in Nebraska listed in Governor Heineman's request include Garden, Lincoln, Morrill, and Scotts Bluff along the Platte River, and Boyd, Burt, Cass, Cedar, Dakota, Dixon, Douglas, Knox, Nemaha, Otoe, Richardson, Sarpy, Thurston, and Washington along the Missouri River.

Above-average snowmelt in Montana has combined with rainfalls ten times greater than average this spring and like a game of Dominoes, one by one, the dams and levees along the Missouri river are spilling their waters into farmlands, city streets, and homes in a large portion of Nebraska and numerous other states.

According to Mike Wight, Public Information Officer for the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the situation continues to worsen each day. "It's still raining in Montana," Wight said. "Two weeks ago they had two more feet of snow in the Montana mountains. Depending on which state you are in, and where you are in that state, the waters in the Missouri and Platte Rivers are anywhere from 5 to 8 feet above flood level and they could be rising."

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River threatens nucleair powerplant
The swollen Missouri River had posed a serious threat to a riverside nuclear power plant in the state of Nebraska in the United States after levees built to hold back the rising floodwaters failed.

The Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant was reportedly very close to getting engulfed by the floodwaters, raising fears of a crisis similar to Japan’s Fukushima disaster.

Though the nuclear plant declared the event as “unusual,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) maintained that there was no risk of disaster.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)'s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, Japan, was devastated by Tsunami waves in March 2011, leading to leakage of radioactive water into the ocean.

As a massive earthquake and tsunami killed thousands of people in Japan, radiation woes and a much more severe nuclear crisis took the country’s economy into recession affecting businesses, consumer spending and tearing apart supply chains.

Federal officials widened flood gates last week to allow record, or near-record water releases to ease pressure on six major reservoirs swollen by heavy rains and melting snow, Reuters reported.

But later in the week, Missouri River floodwaters reached a levee built up to protect Hamburg, Iowa, after the main protection along the river failed, a county emergency official said.

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Next 72 hours are critical in flood fight
With more rain Monday and forecast into today, access in and out of the Fox Island area was closed Monday afternoon indefinitely because of muddy conditions.

Jeb Williams, who voluntarily evacuated his home and along with his family is living with his mother, said he had been able to get in and out on a daily basis to make sure sump pumps were working and check on things.

At Monday morning's flood briefing, the 27th in the flood fight, Lt. Col. Robert Ruud of the North Dakota National Guard said while no major problems were reported over the weekend, the Guard's quick response teams responded for 21 spot repairs on dikes.

As of 10 p.m. Monday evening, the Missouri River level stood at 18.84 feet in Bismarck.

Flood stage in Bismarck is 16 feet.

Releases from Garrison Dam were cranked up to 150,000 cubic feet per second Friday morning, and it takes 30-36 hours for water from the dam to reach Bismarck and Mandan.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said releases of 150,000 cfs will be maintained into August and has predicted the river to hold at between 19 and 19.5 feet.

On the upper end of the mainstem dam system, the Fort Peck Reservoir dropped one-tenth of a foot on Sunday.

Inflows to Fort Peck were 51,000 cfs Sunday, with releases scheduled to hold at 65,500 cfs.

The level on Lake Sakakawea was stable over the weekend, remaining at 1,853.9 feet, one-tenth of a foot below the top of the spillway gates, according to corps.

The record level for the lake came in 1975, with a level of 1,854.8.

Lake Oahe came up one-tenth of a foot Sunday to an elevation of 1,618.6, one-tenth of record elevation set in 1995.

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Record flooding in North Dakota forces evacuation of 11,000

A 1-in-100 to 1-in-200 year flood is in progress in North Dakota along the Souris River, where flood heights never seen in recorded history are putting unprecedented pressure on the river's levees. The Lake Darling flood control reservoir located about 15 miles upstream from Minot, North Dakota, the state's 4th largest city, is full to overflowing. Record releases of water are occurring to prevent the lake's dam from overtopping. A mandatory evacuation of 11,000 residents from Minot is underway, and must be completed before Thursday morning, when water levels on the Souris River are expected to rise several feet above the previous all-time flood height, set in 1881. Massive rainfall in Canada on Sunday and Monday, combined with very heavy rainfall and snow melt over North Dakota over the past month, are responsible for the record flood. The Souris River Basin near the Rafferty Dam in Saskatchewan received four to seven inches of rain Sunday into Monday. Flood heights along the Souris River near the Canadian border upstream from Minot are already almost a foot above the previous all-time highest mark, and all that water will arrive in Minot beginning on Thursday, likely overwhelming the city's levees and flooding large portions of the city for two or more weeks.

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Heavy rains this week over the neighboring Missouri River watershed forced the Army Corps of Engineers today to increase the flow rate at the key Gavins Point Dam to a record 160,000 cubic feet per second. The dam was already releasing water at more than double the previous record flow rate, and the increased flow is expected to raise flood heights by 0.3 - 0.7 feet along the Missouri River from Omaha to Kansas City. There have already been two levee failures and two places where levees have been overtopped along the Missouri River this month, resulting in large-scale flooding of low-lying farmlands. "This continues to be a very dynamic situation and dangerous at the same time," said Brig. Gen. John McMahon, commander of the Northwestern Division of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Early flood stages in Minot, ND (the historic 2011 flood)

Flood fight 2011 Minot ND

Burlington & Minot June 1, 2011 (video 1 of 2)

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Thousands flee flood in Minot, N.D.

The mayor of Minot says water from the Souris River is expected to start pouring over dikes in the North Dakota city within the hour.

Mayor Curt Zimbelman made the comments at 9:30 a.m. CT Wednesday in a telephone interview with KXMC television in Minot.

The city will sound its emergency sirens when water is overtopping the levees at certain points, Zimbelman said.

About 12,000 Minot residents — a quarter of the city's residents — have been facing a 6 p.m. deadline to leave their homes as the river moves closer to swamping the city with the worst flooding in four decades.

That deadline appears to have become much more imminent.

"Public safety is paramount," said Minot Mayor Curt Zimbelman. "The water is rising fast, and people need to get evacuated as soon as possible."

Truck after truck heaped with belongings were seen leaving neighbourhoods Wednesday morning and people were giving away furniture, putting it out on the curb saying they've got no room to take it with them.

The Souris River has been bloated by heavy spring snowmelt and rain on both sides of the border and will top Minot's levees within two days, officials have said.

The Souris River loops down from Saskatchewan through north central North Dakota then returns north into Manitoba, passing through the communities of Melita, Hartney, Souris and Wawanesa before joining the Assiniboine River at Treesbank.

People in Manitoba are closely watching what happens in Minot. The level of the river in towns like Souris has been dropping and municipal officials hope there will be enough room along their dikes for the water that will come their way in a couple of weeks.

In Minot, the river is expected to dwarf the major floodof 1969. That's when the Souris reached 474 metres above sea level. It's expected to hit nearly 476 metres this this time around, surpassing even the historical record level of 475 metres, set in 1881.

The water was already started gushing out onto some streets through manholes on Wednesday.

The 1969 flood prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to build a dike system that has been beefed up several times this spring.

But those levees are unable to handle flows from Saskatchawan of approximately 28,000 cubic feet per second.

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Zware overstromingen in Noord-Dakota

MINOT (AP, REUTERS) - In de Amerikaanse stad Minot in Noord-Dakota staan 4.000 woningen tot aan het dak onder water. Zowat een derde van de bevolking van die stad moest zijn woning verlaten omdat de rivier de Souris buiten zijn oevers was getreden. De meeste huizen zijn er niet verzekerd voor dit soort waterschade omdat niemand er rekening mee hield dat dit ooit mogelijk kon zijn.

Levee saving flooded US town from disaster

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North Dakota flooding brings hardship to Minot

(AP/CBS)- While the South Dakota town of Minot remains under several feet of water this morning- there is some good news.

The river which has flooded out more than 4 thousand homes and hundreds of businesses is slow receding.

And since the Souris River did not rise as high as expected- only the homes swamped by the rising waters on friday should be impacted.

But that may be little comfort to those who have yet to start-up the rebuilding progress, which may include dealing with the disaster minus a key thing- insurance.

Only a small number of home-owners are covered and will have to rely on help from the government.

In the mean-time, the community is working together to get through the rough days ahead.

Resident Josh Hawkins says, "going through this has been worth it because its drawn us closer together and its reminding us what's truly valuable."

Minot's residents were told they weren't in danger of future flooding, after levee construction back in 1969.

Over 11 thousand people are staying in emergency shelters.

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Flood berm bursts at Nebraska nuclear plant
A water-filled berm protecting a nuclear power plant in Nebraska from rising floodwaters collapsed Sunday, according to a spokesman, who said the plant remains secure.

Some sort of machinery came in contact with the berm, puncturing it and causing the berm to deflate, said Mike Jones, a spokesman for the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD), which owns the Fort Calhoun plant.

The plant, located about 20 miles north of Omaha, has been shut since April for refueling.

"The plant is still protected. This was an additional, a secondary, level of protection that we had put up," Jones said. "The plant remains protected to the level it would have been if the aqua berm had not been added."

Parts of the grounds are already under water as the swollen Missouri River overflows its banks, including areas around some auxiliary buildings, Jones said.

In addition to the berm, authorities have put in place floodgates and other barriers to help protect the facility, like sandbags.

The 8-foot-tall, water-filled berm, 16 feet wide at its base, surrounded the reactor containment structure and auxiliary buildings, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"We built the plant up high enough based on history, based on the flooding in the past. If the flood would rise for some reason above that level we have taken precautions, again, per our procedures to sandbag the important equipment for the reactors," said Dave Van Der Kamp, with the Nebraska Public Power District.

He said the chances of floodwater getting into the building where the core is kept are almost zero.

The plant is designed to withstand waters up to 1,014 feet above mean sea level, according to the OPPD. The river currently stands at 1,006.3 feet and is not expected to exceed 1,008 feet, the OPPD said.

Heavy rainfall in Montana and North Dakota, combined with melting snow from the Rocky Mountains, have sent the Missouri surging downstream this summer. The river washed over and punched through levees in nearby northwestern Missouri, spurring authorities to urge about 250 nearby residents to leave their homes.

The 6 to 12 inches of rainfall in the upper Missouri basin in the past few weeks is nearly a normal year's worth, and runoff from the mountain snowpack is 140% of normal, according to forecasters.

It was catastrophic flooding from Japan's March 11 tsunami that knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, resulting in three reactors melting down and producing the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. This year's Midwestern flooding has also led to a spate of rumors about the Fort Calhoun plant that OPPD and the NRC have been trying to knock down.

The utility has set up a "flood rumor control" page to reassure the public that there has been no release of radioactivity from the plant. An electrical fire June 7 did knock out cooling to its spent fuel storage pool for about 90 minutes, but the coolant water did not reach a boiling point before backup pumps went into service, it has said.