An unprecedented amount of water is stored in Kansas and Missouri reservoirs, according to Corps of Engineers officials.
Reservoirs are holding high water levels behind their dams, according to corps officials, which means more water has to be released into the rivers.
The Missouri and Kansas river levels in Wyandotte County are currently in flood stage and are declining slightly, according to hydrologic charts.
The reservoir system in the Kansas City district has 11 million acre feet of storage and currently 9 million acre feet are occupied, according to Eric Shumate, chief of hydrologic engineering for the Kansas City district. He made his remarks during a news conference Monday.
Shumate said the reservoir at Lake Perry would continue to make releases at 10,000 cubic feet per second. Also, releases of 4,000 cfs from Milford Lake began today, he said. It takes about six days for the water from Milford to reach the Kansas City area.
Tuttle Creek releases are at 30,000 cfs and are expected to remain the same. However, there are only low flow releases currently from Clinton Lake. The releases started May 29 from Tuttle, which is near Manhattan, Kansas.
Kanopolis is releasing 2,000 cfs, and there are plans to increase it to 2,500 cfs, then to 3,000 cfs, he said. It will take about 10 days for water from the Kanopolis to travel to the Missouri River, according to Shumate.
According to Shumate, Truman Lake exceeded the top of its flood control pool last night around 10 p.m., and releases are being increased from Truman from 30,000 cfs to 40,000 cfs around 6 p.m. Monday. The Truman Reservoir is south of the Kansas City area, in southwest Missouri.
In South Dakota, the Gavins Point dam on the Missouri River increased its releases to 75,000 cfs from 70,000 cfs on Saturday, said a Corps official.
He said the June 1 basin runoff forecast showed the runoff forecast for 2019 was 50 million acre feet, the second highest on record, second to 2011, in over 100 years. About 20 million acre feet is expected to be added in the future, and there is 11.5 million acre feet of water stored in pools, he said.
The Corps official expected the Gavins Point releases to be maintained into the fall if not all the way through to the winter.
Even though there is some rain in the forecast, with 1.5 to 2 inches of rain expected now through Saturday, and the water releases are being stepped up from upstream reservoirs, current hydrologic charts do not show the Missouri and Kansas rivers in Wyandotte County experiencing any increases. The Missouri is in moderate flood stage, while the Kansas is in minor flood stage here.
Jud Kneuvean, chief of emergency management in the Kansas City District, Corps of Engineers, said the Kansas City district has issued more than just under a million sandbags, and will receive a fourth sandbag machine to help with the demand, along with 1.5 million more sandbags and more barriers.
On Monday, the Corps provided assistance to the Kaw Valley Drainage District in Kansas City, Kansas, and the CID levee in Kansas City, Missouri, according to an official. He said the Kaw Valley system is in good shape and performing as it should.
Forty-three levees in the Corps of Engineers’ Kansas City District have overtopped or overtopped and breached since May 22, he said. Two have been intentionally cut to prevent damage. This figure does not include the number of damaged levees that occurred in March and April, he added.
Corps officials also said the Missouri River now has been closed to barge and recreational vessel traffic from mile 0 at St. Louis to mile 380, upstream of Kansas City, as of Sunday. No boat traffic is allowed unless the boat is approved for waivers.