http://www.omaha.com/article/20100622/NEWS01/706229908#keeping-an-eye-on-the-riverPublished Tuesday June 22, 2010
By Nancy Gaarder and Sarah Reinecke WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS
Different day, different towns.
Same discouraging story.
More flooding. More hail. Another tornado.
Nebraska communities, mostly in the southeastern part of the state, spent Monday cleaning up from all three.
After five weeks of damaging weather, Nebraska emergency officials are bracing for another round of potentially life-threatening and property-swallowing storms and flooding.
Of particular concern is the Missouri River.
The river set a record at Rulo on Monday when it reached 25.75 feet, just above the previous record of 25.6 feet.
“Right now our concerns are the levees,” said Jim Gerweck, Richardson County's emergency manager. “The river's been high for a week, and if the water stays up ... some of those levees are going to be more at risk than they are now.”
Personnel at Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville have been preparing for flooding. However, based on current flood forecasts, it's not expected that the plant will have to shut down, said Mark Becker, a spokesman for Nebraska Public Power District.
Jody Farhat of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that releases from upstream reservoirs on the Missouri River were nearly halved Sunday night to allow the river to subside.
That curtailment won't shave anything off the river's crest, she said, but should accelerate its drop at the end of this week. The curtailment should account for a drop of about 6 inches by the time the water arrives in southeastern Nebraska in a few days.
A nightly chance for storms remains in the forecast for the rest of the week, according to the National Weather Service.
FULL story at link.