Classic films like the “Wizard of Oz” and a Kansas museum dedicated to preserving the film’s history, made the state famous for its wide-open rural farmland, rolling prairies and fields of sunflowers. The image it created still fits much of central Kansas, where Kanopolis and Wilson reservoirs are tied to the Smoky Hill and Saline rivers.
Because these waters are more often associated with fun in the sun rather than flooding, there is a tendency to underestimate the subtle dangers dams can pose to nearby communities. But that innocent assumption is a misnomer since more than 410,000 people and nearly 30,000 structures sit downstream of both, putting more than $18.1 billion in land and property at risk.
“Any dam embankment...
Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle announced a sweeping set of initiatives for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program, Feb. 23. The “Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork” initiatives will modernize the Civil Works program by refocusing USACE on its core water resources missions.
The 2026 calendar year runoff forecast above Sioux City is 23.4 MAF, 91% of average. The Feb. 3 mountain snowpack in the Fort Peck reach was 81% of average, while the mountain snowpack in the Fort Peck to Garrison reach was 90% of average.
It's been 30 years since the perfect storm hit the Pacific Northwest in February of 1996. Hear three different perspectives of the tragic flooding that followed including the former government of Oregon, an emergency responder, and a young woman who had to evacuate her home along the river.
