In a season of flooding by some of the nation’s biggest rivers, it’s streams most Americans have never heard of that could cause some of the worst problems in the Midwest.
Hundreds of tributaries that feed the congested Missouri River face a greater-than-normal flood risk this summer because of water levels that have kept them from draining. The Missouri is expected to remain near historic highs for months, which means the threat will remain through summer — a season when the Midwest often is beset with thunderstorms that can quickly dump heavy rain.
University of Iowa engineering professor Witold Krajewski, director of the Iowa Flood Center, compared the situation to a “traffic jam” of water. It started with the sustained release of massive amounts of water from dams on the upper Missouri, caused by spring rain and a heavy Rocky Mountain snowpack that filled reservoirs.
“It’s like a football game and baseball game getting out at the same time,” Krajewski said. “There are all these cars trying to move. It doesn’t take long before drivers can’t get out of the side streets.”
Backed-up tributaries in South Dakota and Missouri have already submerged streets and threatened homes near the point where they reach the surging river. In Hamburg, Iowa, work crews are keeping close watch on changing levels of the Nishnabotna River to their east, as they try to hold off the Missouri River from the west.
Some tributaries, such as the Nodaway and Big Sioux, are so backed up with high water in the larger river that local officials worry that a well-placed downpour could suddenly pose a new flooding threat.
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