Are they purposefully flooding Hamburg, Iowa?

First off, I'm in Omaha, Nebraska. Although areas of the city are/have been under water, there isn't a lot of local news coverage. I rely solely on KETV online, our local news channel's internet site.

My boyfriend came home last night and told me that flooding up north had gotten so bad that officials are "opening the floodgates" and allowing Hamburg, Iowa, a small town of about 1200 people, to flood over to save other towns and cities. Has anyone else in the area heard this? I can only find very limited info online. He listens to talk radio on the way to and from work, so I'm sure that's where he heard it. Can anyone else verify this?

According to what I was able to find online, the town is being evacuated.

Forecasts show an overflowing Missouri River covering about 50 city blocks, including most of the downtown.

Officials said although they can not be sure what will happen, they urge residents to be prepared.

link

The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is currently releasing 70,000 cubic feet of water per second from upstream dams, but will increase it to 85,000 cfs on June 2.

It will increase to 130,000 cfs on June 7 and reach 150,000 cfs in mid-June.

The previous record of releases from Gavins Point dam in North Dakota was 70,000 cfs, but the corps has announced plans to more than double that.

link

There are quite a few farms in Hamburg: Hillside Orchard (fruit), Mincer Orchard (6th generation fruit farm), Propp Farms Inc (corn), Jsm Farms, Nishnaview Farm (family owned natural farm)...to name a few.

The area will be flooded for months, displacing its citizens elsewhere throughout the summer.


Missouri River Flooding

Hamburg, Iowa flooding

Historic flooding possible

I have been visiting at my girlfriends place (in Northwest Missouri) for the last month or so which is about 20 min away from Hamburg, IA. They are indeed flooding the town on purpose.

I believe the majority of people are already evacuated, the flooding is going to happen very shortly.

The massive amounts of snow fall in the northwest coupled with extreme rain is creating really really bad flooding conditions here.

From the national weather service:

IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS...THE UPPER MISSOURI BASIN HAS RECEIVED NEARLY A YEAR`S WORTH OF RAINFALL. IN ADDITION...SNOW PACK RUNOFF YET TO FULLY ENTER THE UPPER PORTION OF THE RIVER SYSTEM IS 140 PERCENT OF NORMAL. THESE CONDITIONS ARE RESULTING IN MISSOURI BASIN RESERVOIRS ACROSS EASTERN MONTANA AND THE DAKOTAS NEARING THEIR MAXIMUM LEVELS. RECORD RELEASES HAVE BEGUN AT GAVINS POINT DAM LOCATED TO THE WEST OF YANKTON SOUTH DAKOTA. CURRENT RELEASES ARE AROUND 85,000 CFS (CUBIC FEET PER SECOND)...AND WILL BE INCREMENTALLY INCREASED TO 150,000 CFS BY MID-JUNE. THE PREVIOUS HIGH RELEASE AT GAVINS POINT WAS 70,000 CFS IN 1997.

They are going to be releasing water at twice the rate it has EVER been released before.

They are estimating that the mainstreet intersection of Hamburg will be under 8-10 feet of water.
Most people who have evacuated will never be coming back.

The city is basically done for - they are estimating about 2/3 to full destruction.

Hamburg won't be the last town destroyed by the flooding, I am sure more are to be evacuated soon including part of the town I am currently in.

KETV website has pretty good coverage of the flooding.

www.ketv.com...

blogs.desmoinesregister.com...

www.hamburgreporter.com...


The nuclear power plants in the area around me are getting ready to go into shutdown mode because the water levels are right at their stage to begin shutdown preparations. It is estimated that this will only get worse over the next few days. Water level is expected to peak around the 17th but I think it will keep growing past that.

Keep in mind that flooding rural areas like this is going to be responsible for taking out thousands and thousands of acres of farm land which could have a potentially horrible effect on food and food prices. It isn't uncommon for farmers to be unable to plant fields for 5 years after a flood - if they ever recover their land back.

This is the second such town I have heard of that this has happened; the premise that by destroying a few homes they can save the many in another location (in some far off distant location from the small hamlet)!

What part of this makes any sense? Seems that if I wanted to remove a large portion of people from an area I would flood them like they do with rats. It works every time, they jump out of their holes and run for the hills!

I imagine that is what people are doing, getting to higher ground.

Does the name New Madrid ring any bells?

I am sorry for the rat analogy, but that is what they do! Again, my most sincere wishes for anyone in the wake of this! Please come to NM! I give you the State!

Could the Army Core of Engineers have handled the release of the water from the Gavins Point Dam a little differently? Maybe the water could have been released over aperiod of time instead of all at once...I don't know much about this process, but I wonder if there could have been a better solution?
Rosemary

Originally posted by rosemary
Could the Army Core of Engineers have handled the release of the water from the Gavins Point Dam a little differently? Maybe the water could have been released over aperiod of time instead of all at once...I don't know much about this process, but I wonder if there could have been a better solution?

Rosemary

I have my degree in geology specializing in stream erosion and really there isn't a better solution. I assume they have their geologists mathematically determining exactly how much needs to be released in order to keep the destruction at it's minimum.

Unfortunately this is part of the risk of building on flood plains. Yes this city might have to be destroyed in order to save others with possibly higher value such as housing or industry but when humans start building dams and changing the natural environment this is the cost.

reply to post by rosemary


If the pressure behind the dam grew too great before they could release enough pressure, then they would be in jeopardy of the dam rupturing and have a much worse situation, I believe.

reply to post by zillah


I live in Iowa and have heard very little about this. What I read the people had evacuated. I don't really know the story of Hamburg but I do know that there have been some rumors that a few of the towns had been looked at by large Multi-national corporations to buy some of the small towns out. They want to use the land the towns are sitting on for more corn fields. The price of corn has just risen from a little over 2 dollars a bushel to more than 6 dollars a bushel and is expected to continue to rise. Another consideration is that under the plans made by the Club of Rome there is a push to drive the populations into the cities. They plan to only have the people that are necessary for production to be out of the cities.

And yet your western coast remains and has remained so easy going throughout such strange weather. But wait.. what is happening....

www.intellicast.com...

Can it be? No couldn't be. Think happy thoughts and maybe it will just go away.

reply to post by zillah


Hey a fellow Cornhusker! I was born in Omaha. My Dad lives in Council Bluffs. My sister lives in Omaha still.

There is a lot flooding going on there and it is barely mentioned in the MSM. I've heard that the damage from the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers has caused more damage and more death than Katrina did. There still has not been nearly the response that New Orleans and other cities received via the federal government.

Good old Midwesterners are just boning up and taking care of themselves.

As for whether they are flooding cities like Hamburg on purpose, well, I wouldn't doubt it. I've heard they are causing damage to huge swaths of farmland and that there is even a nuclear powerplant in the flood plane. Scary stuff.

It's too bad that they couldn't dump water into trucks and haul it away somewhere fast enough. Like to Texas and other drought areas?

reply to post by Redwookieaz


It is definitely in the news that the Army Corp of engineers is releasing the water that will flood the town. That is why there was a complete evacuation of the tow. Also Tuesday there is suppose to be a large rally in Des Moines. Over a bunch of legislation some it something like what happened in Wisconsin last winter.

reply to post by redrose123


Good to know, thanks. I haven't however seen much in the national news. Maybe it is just me IDK.

Do you know what the legislation is about? Is it about the flooding or government employee stuff like Wisconsin?

A few updates:

There are some levees that are in the process of bursting. They have upped the rate of water release to around 100,000 cubic feet per second - they are still planning to keep increasing to 150,000. The previous highest they have ever released was around 70,000 or 75,000.

My girlfriend informed me this morning that due to breaking levees a town north of Omaha was essentially given 1 day warning. They thought they would be fine and now they have less than 24 hours to GTFO. There are mandatory evacuations happening in a number of towns in Nebraska.

I'm currently located about an hour and a half away from the Omaha region at my girlfriends place. There are some neighboring towns around me they are saying probably will be leveled and it is extremely doubtful they will be rebuilt. I went out driving yesterday and snapped some pictures around the NE/MO border at the river. The town of Brownville, NE holds a local nuclear power plant and the access road to it is already underwater. I assume they have begun shutdown preparations already. As soon as power plants and water treatment plants start flooding - even people whose houses will be safe from the flood could be without power or water for weeks or even potentially months.

www.flickr.com...
If anyone is interested in seeing some pictures from the flooding in Missouri that is staring to happen. They were taken with a camera phone so not the best quality but there are a few decent shots. I took these shots yesterday, which was before all this crazy news I just woke up to about how worse it is getting.

The major highway for travel out here - i 29 - is estimated to be under 2-4 feet of water at the flood peak.

I've been talking to friends and family from back home for the last few days about this, they had no clue any of this is happening. I guess it wont make national news until AFTER these towns they are estimating to be under 8-10 feet of water flood.

At this point it isn't just Hamburg that will be wiped out, probably going to be towns from a few states in the area that will be lost. Again, there will be thousands of acres of farm land lost too...