Omaha closes floodgates

Source: Omaha World Herald

BREAKING NEWS: City workers have just finished lowering the last of three floodgates to close off Omaha's flood wall.

Two of the gates are just north of Rick's Cafe Boatyard and the other is just south of there, under the Interstate 480 bridge.

Each panel is made of 3/4 inch steel and weighs about 6,000 pounds, according to Gordon Andersen, quality control engineer of Omaha Public Works.

Photo of the nations second largest Tribute to Labor sculpture with the base already under water: http://www.omaha.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OW&Date=20110528&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=705299883&Ref=AR&maxw=600&maxh=400
The Missouri River surges over the labor monument at Lewis and Clark Landing Sunday morning.

KIRBY KAUFMAN/THE WORLD-HERALD

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20110528/NEWS01/705299883/1014#omaha-closes-floodgates

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Earlier story about the plant I work at suffering $ millions in damage from the flood: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1193308

omaha steve? so many disasters this year...it seems worse than usual, but maybe i just wasn't paying attention in the past.

Updated story, photos, and video here: http://www.omaha.com/article/20110529/NEWS01/705309949#video

Public worker died fighting floods in March: http://www.afscme.org/blog?c=blog_categories&t=general

March 21, 2011

Flood preparations turned tragic Tuesday when Michael Struck, a MnDOT maintenance worker, and his backhoe were swept into the churning Minnesota River.

Struck was clearing debris from a culvert near Seven Mile Creek on Highway 169 between St. Peter and Mankato. The current was too strong for rescue divers to enter the frigid flood waters, but Struck’s body was found a day later.

Like his AFSCME co-workers, Mike was an everyday hero willing to risk his personal safety to keep motorists safe. Our hearts break for the Struck family, including Mike’s mom, Denise, also a member of AFSCME Local 280 (Council 5) at MnDOT’s district office in Mankato.

Mike was 39 and he is survived by his wife, Audrey, and their four-year-old daughter. AFSCME and MnDOT will honor Mike’s life and dedicated service at the Mankato Workers Memorial Day observance on April 28.

Learn more from the Star Tribune and FOX-9 TV.
Posted In: General, Public Service, Public Works


MnDoT employees work to prepare for floods. (File photo courtesy of AFSCME Council 5)

When I29 was closed south of Rockport Mo.

Sounds like this could be just as bad. Stay high and stay dry.

It's pretty frightening.

The flood of April, 1952, still stands as the flood-of-record for the Missouri at Omaha. On April 16, the river's discharge was 396,000 cubic feet/second (177,724,800 gallons per minute) with a record stage of 40.2 feet (flood stage at Omaha is 29 feet). The first flood warnings were issued on April 7 from Niobrara to Rulo, a sign of the severity of the impending flood. By the 13th, all 5,557 residents of South Sioux City were urged to evacuate by the mayor as dikes protecting the City had failed days earlier and a third of the City was flooded to a depth of eight feet. Evacuation orders were commonplace: all 622 residents of Dakota City, 30,000 in Council Bluffs, 40,000 from Carter Lake and East Omaha, and numerous other places up and down the river. 75 homes were flooded in Niobrara; Homer and La Platte were virtually abandoned; Blair set a record crest of 23.15 feet (flood stage is 18.0 feet); the flow reached 400,000 cfs at Plattsmouth; 20 families were rescued in Bellevue; the stage of 27.66 feet and record discharge of 414,000 cfs meant that the flood exceeded the 500-year level at Nebraska City; and families were evacuated in Rulo. President Truman personally visited the scene of the flooding in Omaha and officially declared it a disaster area. Although the crest passed Omaha without causing a floodwall breach, other places were not as fortunate. South Sioux City damage estimates alone were $2.5 million, and $11.9 million was the Corps of Engineers' preliminary estimate for the entire flood. It is doubtful, however, that this estimate takes into consideration all aspects of flood damage such as infrastructure, agriculture, business interruption, and other direct losses. 180,000 agricultural acres were inundated, and of the 1,400 houses inundated in the flood, 681 were farmsteads. In urban areas, 2,100 homes were evacuated, totaling 13,000 displaced people (not including Omaha). 1.4 million manhours were worked to fight the flood.

http://www.dnr.state.ne.us/floodplain/mitigation/mofloods.html

Wait.

Omaha?

Never mind.

Stay safe!