South Dakota's Gavin Point Dam Scary With Water Releases

Water surges from the Gavins Point Dam in Yankton, South Dakota
on Sunday. This is the second largest water release from
this dam on record. 

I'm almost done with my annual trip to Yankton, South Dakota.

Yesterday, we went to the Gavins Point Dam along the Missouri River near Yankton, which was drawing a crowd.

That's because it has been so wet in the Plains and Midwest that dams, including Gavins Point, have had to release tons of water because of the excessive flows.

Gavins Point is having its second biggest release on record. Only 2011 had a bigger release. This, of course, is contributing to flooding downstream, but there's nothing anything can do about it. The water has to go somewhere.

According to the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, they recently had to increase the Gavins Point Dam release to 70,000 cubic feet per second. That's up to 65,000 cubic feet per second in late May and 60,000 cubic feet per second earlier this spring.

The rushing water from these releases is something to behold. The photos don't do it justice.  The water roars out of the dam, then a short distance downstream, the river turns into this boiling, churning mess that would probably rip apart anyone who had the misfortune of being in the water. Spray blew willy nilly in the central plains wind gusts.

Just downstream, people in rocking boats collect fish from the roiling water. Signs that you would think are unnecessary warn boaters not to get too close to the dam. But some people aren't bright, so you need the signs, I guess.

Roiling water just below the Gavins Point Dam in Yankton,
South Dakota on Sunday

Gavins Point Dam releases will continue into the fall. Rain has temporarily tapered off in the Missouri River watershed upstream from Yankton, but I'm sure it will come back.

Also, it's been a late spring in Wyoming and Montana, and there's still plenty of snow up in the mountains there.

It's finally heating up in the northern Rockies, so the snowmelt will add more surges into the Missouri River over the next several weeks. That's just one of many examples of why the flooding in the middle of the nation has lasted so long, and why it will continue.

Gavins Point Dam is the last dam on the Missouri River, so the releases are causing high water all the way downstream to the where the river empties into the Mississippi River in St. Louis. Meanwhile, fairly substantial rains are expected to continue for at least the next week in Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.

You can see how this problem isn't going away anytime soon.

There are so many rivers and tributaries and levees and watersheds and other features in the huge Missouri and Mississippi River valleys. Gavins Point Dam is only one cog in this huge mess.

Here's a video of the Gavins Point Dam on Sunday.