As a journalist might say, we are experiencing a developing situation here in Bismarck-Mandan. All at once we have flooding to worry about. A full reservoir, Lake Sacajawea, held in place by the Garrison Dam needs to have pressure released which keeps building from huge runoff from Montana's heavy rains and mountain snow-melt. Personally we have nothing to worry about here at our home because of our elevation but many neighborhoods will be at risk on both sides of the Missouri River. The Corps of Engineers keeps increasing their estimates as to the cubic feet per second (cfs) amount of release needed in the coming weeks to deal with the threat, so the city fathers keep revising their plans to deal with water. Since cfs figures keep bumping up Mary and I decided to drive up to the dam today to take a look at the tail race. The above picture gives a poor interpretation of the boil, but my haiku poem describes it as good as anything.
I felt the ground vibrating as I stood on the bank with my camera where I wished I owned the zoom lens I'm planning to buy. Probably 35 years ago I stood on a concrete pad on the east side and cast my fishing line below the tail race. At that time the water level in the river stood much lower and a good deal of the rusted outlet gates showed. Today nothing of them showed. The power and energy were obviously immense.
We stopped for a break at a convenience store in nearby Riverdale and told the manager our Heart River was running very high too. Yes, he knew of it and said the dam at Lake Tschida was overflowing. The only amusing thing we saw today appeared in nearby Pick City, a bar sign declaring "The best dam bar by a dam site."
