From drought to floods: Soggy summer takes South Dakota to new extreme

Statewide dry streak ends with mixed results

Emergency management officials have shifted their focus from flooding in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska to further south on the Missouri River, where more rain this week brought predictions of second crests.

Flood concerns were being felt as far south as St. Louis as the Missouri River continues to carry runoff from record-setting storms in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, combined with more recent rains over Missouri. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cut back water releases from the dam system it manages in the Dakotas.

"In response to the rainfall, the releases from Fort Randall and Gavins Point dams were reduced,” said John Remus, chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division. “The lower releases were able to reduce downstream river stages, but they could not completely offset all of the flooding in the Sioux City area.”

This year’s waves of precipitation, while damaging to many in southeastern South Dakota, have had some positives. All of eastern South Dakota has escaped drought conditions that had gripped parts of the state for years, according to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

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