Video of ND and SD Hydro Dams with floodgates open

[Kanaworm$ 292]

This is the Garrison Dam in North Dakota. The Lake Sakakawea Reservoir is full with more rain in the forecast. This is before the winter snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains that will flow into the Missouri River causing more flooding. Downstream cities of Bismarck and Mandan, ND are relentlessly sandbagging to protect structure and property.

Here is the Oahe Dam in Pierre South Dakota downstream from the Garrison Dam on the Missouri River. As you can see the floodgates are open as well. These were with 80,000 cfs releases. The Army Corps Of Engineers will be increasing to 150,000 cfs in the next few days. Flooding downstream will continue well into August.

[Dan208 23]

We've got two lakes close by with spillways like that. The power of the water coming out always amazed me.

[Kanaworm$ 292]

Scary thing is they are calling this a 100 year type flood event and the dams are not even that old! Here is some history on 2 of the 6 dams on the Missouri River.

Garrison and Oahe

[edouble101 314]

The power of water is phenomenal.

Thanks for posting.

[altoncustomtech 773]

I concur, the absolute power of water is hard to fathom. Not to mention the fact that 150,000 or even 80,000 cubic feet of water a second is completely unimaginable in any other context. Hell, its hard to imagine in that context. Look at it like this, a volume of water nearly the size of a the length of a football field CUBED is passing by a given point every second.

[altoncustomtech 773]

Wait.... that's not that big..... math is a little off, did a square root instead of cube root..... that's a cube approximately 43ft each side or 43'x43'x43'..... still hard to imagine that much going by every second....

[Quentin Jarrell 671]

Our levees on the lower mississippi are the highest they have been since the early 1900s. It is up 20 feet in new Orleans about 3 feet from the top if the levees in some places and we still have our annual June rise to look forward too.

There is enough water coming through our spillway to fill up the super dome every minute

Edited June 1, 2011 by Audibel Customs

[Quentin Jarrell 671]

This photo is one week after the river started to come up. Where the boats are sitting is a driveway that takes you to where the river bank is normally. One week prior I drove my vehicle through here. It was about 10 feet deep at the time of the photo. The next two photos are from standing on the boat.

You can barely see a bow line for a vessel about 200 feet past the last light pole. This is where the river bank normally is.

[Randal Johnson 544]

Are those dams actual hydroelectric power plants ??

[Kanaworm$ 292]

Are those dams actual hydroelectric power plants ??

Yes all 6 are hydro electric producing dams.