The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn't have good news as they addressed a crowd in Nebraska City Thursday night. The Corps revealed their outlook for Missouri river activity in the next 90 days and it doesn't look promising for flood victims.
"It's going to run high all summer so there's a chance of it popping back out of banks at any time,” Chief Engineer of Missouri River Water Management John Remus told 6 News.
Engineers told the crowd, heavy rain, already water-packed snow, and frozen ground are all to blame for the historic floods in Nebraska and Iowa. "This has been both historic and catastrophic,” Fran Parr of Pacific Junction told 6 News.
Parr's home stood for more than 110 years. "Nothing like this has ever happened on that property,” she said. "It's like a bath tub."
Severe levee breaches across the state line and in Percival, IA have crews scrambling to install temporary blockades. "People still can't get back out there to check their houses without taking a boat,” said Phillip Peters of Percival.
But flood victims along the Missouri River and its channels are not out of the woods yet. A high potential for more-than-normal rainfall totals from April to September threatens more river flooding.
"Rainfall, any amount of substantial rainfall has the chance of pushing the river over banks,” said Remus. That's not what anyone in attendance wanted to hear. "People go into a panic when they hear the water is going to come up at all,” Parr says.
At some points along the river system they had more runoff in March than they have in an entire year.