Blockhouse Bikers

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I took my two precious little towheads out to Fort Lincoln last night for a picnic with Daddy…after which we dug out their Strider Bikes, compliments of the fine folks at KTM Cycle Hutt, and proceeded to blaze back and forth between the blockhouses. I took them up top in order to survey the flood situation, then it was back to the action. Boy, did they fall asleep FAST when I got ’em tucked in back at home!

Strider bikes are amazing little devices, because they teach your child how to ride a bike without training wheels in a matter of minutes. They have a low center of gravity, no pedals, and they are fun to ride fast! My three and four year old were cruising around naturally in minutes after we took their bikes out of the box and put the wheels on.

Now, when it comes time for them to ride a two-wheeled pedal bike without training wheels, they’ve already trained their bodies to handle all the balance and coordination with the exception of the pedals. They only have one action to learn. Cool, huh?

Don’t take my word for it, head over to Scheels and check one out for yourself. I know others who’ve got one of these “pre-bikes” and their children love them and learned quickly. Then you can enjoy places like these with children who can get from point A to point B happily and in style!

Poor Corps…it’s been a bad week for PR. How much do we trust ’em?

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While I won’t join the cacophony of detractors claiming that the Army Corps of Engineers should have possessed some sort of “crystal ball” to foresee the weather conditions which have brought us to this point, I do think they need a remedial lesson in being forthcoming. I have a hard time believing that they didn’t know that a 55kcfs release rate would not eventually have to be throttled up to the 150kcfs rate. Burleigh County Commissioner Mark Armstrong has been trying to wring details out of them without result, leading to distrust and wild theory.


One of the theories making the rounds out there is the one I just linked above using Scribd: It’s a man who has spent plenty of time around the Missouri River system and claims that Fort Peck Dam is like a “first domino” (those words are mine) in a potentially greater failure which could cut a deep swath through a good portion of the Midwest.


Then you get the photo posted above on the Corps’ own Flickr feed. It shows one of their people pounding in a warning sign and fence near Fort Peck while the bank crumbles into the lake behind them. That’s reassuring, isn’t it?

Granted, the Shanks fella who I referred to a couple of paragraphs back has two strikes against him: first, he works for an environmentalist advocacy group; and second, he has an upcoming book release on this very subject. What better way to drum up interest? He does, however, raise some interesting questions.


Then, of course, you have to wonder about this: an emergency bid being put out for the material which reinforces the Fort Peck Dam, the very one Mr. Shanks claims is the weak link and which is already at 111% of its flood control capacity.

These would likely be defused as a “smoking gun” if the Corps would simply be a little more forthcoming. I know there are some answers which nobody can have on hand, but I find myself sitting here wondering when the 175kcfs shoe is gonna drop. If it does, we’ve got some serious issues to deal with.

The local dikes are built with the mantra “twenty point six plus one” in mind. Suppose the Corps chooses to, or is forced to, increase releases past the 150kcfs mark? Could we build all of those levees even higher still, even if we wanted to? And that leads me back to my original question: why did our local officials even take them at their word in regard to the 150kcfs number, after they’ve constantly moved the goal posts on us?

While Garrison is down a bit, Fort Peck’s inflows are 150% of their outflows…and again, that reservoir is at 111% of Flood Control storage capacity without the spring runoff even starting yet. If the Corps has a plan for this mess, I think they need to be forthcoming with answers to people’s concerns. I still think that anyone who relies on the Corps’ current numbers to have any finality is fooling themselves.

I’m not trying to feed the rumor mill here, so don’t take this post the wrong way. What I am saying is that there are a lot of really inconvenient tidbits of partial information floating around out there, and they can really be used to feed the hysteria if treated improperly or if people are left to try to find their own information and let their imaginations wander.

And if you haven’t already thrown the kids and the photo albums in the car and fled screaming for the hills, you may wish to read this recently posted response by the man in charge of the Omaha District of the Army Corps of Engineers, posted on the Bismarck city website.

Despite that recent assurance, I think the Army Corps of Engineers needs to be more forthcoming while attempting to reassure people that they do have a plan in detail. As far as the people who have decided that Bismarck and Mandan are building to the “twenty point six plus one” is the end of our dike-building, I wish only to remind them how quickly 55,000cfs turned into 150,000cfs…only a matter of days. They need to try to keep the Corps accountable, and if further planning and preparation are needed this is the time to make sure that they happen.

Welcome to Bismarck-Mandan, home of the No-Fly Zone

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Just in case you thought you might find a way to hop a flight with a pilot friend and get your own birds-eye view of the flooding situation, I thought I’d pass along this little tidbit: Bismarck-Mandan is a no fly zone for air traffic below 5000 ft MSL, shown in the red area above.

The FAA put out NOTAM (Notice To AirMen) 1/6326 on June 5th with very specific instructions that really don’t leave local pilots much room. My guess is that they fear that the same bunch of lookey-loo gapers that caused traffic jams from one end of the metro area to the other will find a way to take to the air, and that causes a hazardous situation over an area where a rescue is a near-certain impossibility.

Oh yeah…right before that they issued NOTAM 1/6325, which declares the same sort of thing around Garrison Dam. So if you thought it’d be really keen to hop in a puddle-jumper and do some circles around the dam to satisfy your curiosity, guess again!

You can find the two NOTAM bulletins on the FAA website here:

FAA NOTAM 1/6326 (Bismarck-Mandan)

FAA NOTAM 1/6325 (Garrison Dam)

Spotted at the Roadhouse

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After enjoying an AMAZING bacon cheeseburger with my beautiful wife on a date night earlier this week, I came out to the parking lot to see this colorful beast adorning the parking lot. Naturally, being the curious sort, I had to check it out. Apparently the little bird in the bottom left of this photo was quite taken with the color as well.

This truck belongs to artist Scott LoBaido, who is currently painting US flags across America. Being one of the fifty states (fifty-seven, if you’re President Obama), it makes sense that we’d be on the list. Mr. LoBaido has a few claims to fame according to his website, such as the “World’s Largest Flag” painting.

I don’t really know what to say about the foil-covered manikin, other than that the flag it’s holding is a little tattered and in need of retirement. I sure do appreciate a good patriotic gesture, though, and I’m glad to see Old Glory every time I see her wave. Thanks to this colorful artist, that’s a sight more likely to be seen.

Distant storm

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One complication we’ve been spared in the flood fight is severe weather. That could hinder efforts dramatically. While areas upstream of us have seen massive rain events and other severe weather, we’ve been blessed in dodging that bullet. A cooler June has kept things settled down for now, and let’s pray it stays that way!

I saw these clouds developing while out at Fort Lincoln a couple of evenings ago, and thankfully the developing storms passed us by.

I’m not the only one who likes cameras and windmills

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My little 3 year old was quite excited about getting to hop in the truck with Daddy and to have his own camera, my very first point-n-shoot Olympus that I’ve had for quite some time now. We wandered across the landscape, took a walk together, and then went in pursuit of the sunset. I told him we could find a windmill, and he thought that was an excellent idea…so off we went.

This is one of his photos, a snapshot of a windmill on a minimum maintenance road north of Bismarck. We actually arrived a little late for the sunset…not because the sun had gone down, but because a line of clouds had moved in across the horizon, cutting our time short. Nevertheless we were still able to get some windmill photos in before going home for a story and bedtime.

Umbrage, and some useful links to boot

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I couldn’t help but wince a bit when someone at a daily Missouri River Flood Briefing repeatedly mentioned misinformation on “the blogs” and by “the bloggers” a couple of days ago. Personally, I was sitting in one of the Operations Centers doing my job instead of blogging, but I was still a little put out by that remark.

I don’t know there WERE so many Bismarck- or Mandan-specific blogs, actually. I like Randy Hoffman’s site and (even though we’re ideological opposites) I enjoy Cat’s writing. So who’s spreading all the misinformation?

Well, certainly it isn’t me. In fact, aside from some campy photos of the swamped riverboat, I’ve been far too busy to even get out an see the flooding in person. Even if I did, I think the past several years have proved that I’ve behaved responsibly overall in what, where, when, and how I post stuff on this site.

I guess it’s not so much personal offense as it is the way many people speak about “bloggers” with disdain. Having worked in the communications industry for decades, I could cite plenty of examples of irresponsible journalism from various media outlets in this town. Having a set of call letters or a printing press doesn’t give you any more credibility than the guy who has discovered a story and wants to articulate it.

Being a “citizen journalist” or “blogger” doesn’t make one righteous or noble, either; however, anyone who claims having a J-school degree somehow gives you a)credibility, b)accuracy, or c)integrity needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

As you should have deduced by now, I’m an information junkie. As usual, I have a few links that you may find useful. Rather than act like I have all the answers, I like to point you to the people who do. I haven’t seen these linked anywhere else, so here goes:

If you’re wondering what the river stage is at various measuring points, just click below:

waterdata.usgs.gov
 

You can find all kinds of data about the Missouri and other rivers in our area with graphs of all by clicking below:

www.crh.noaa.gov
 

This page will give you the daily water release orders issued for the Garrison Dam within the Army Corps of Engineers:

usace.army.mil Orders page
 

My favorite, which gives you a TON of information about just about every aspect of the various dams and reservoirs in our area of concern, can be viewed by clicking below:

usace.army.mil Reports page
 

There’s quite a variety of information available at the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division’s website, just click below:

usace.army.mil NWD-MR page

I said it before, I’ll say it again: I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I probably have some hyperlinks to help you inform yourself. Having said that ad nauseum and after posting all those links to dizzying information above, let me point this out:

bismarck.org and cityofmandan.com are STILL your best bet for reliable information.
Not facebook, not your neigbor, not even local media.

Do yourself a favor and find your own information from the source. Find out your home’s elevation, watch the river, learn what a river release rate means in relation to a river stage level and how that stage level relates to elevation. Once you get your noodle wrapped around triangulating rate/stage/elevation, you will be able to assess your flood risk very quickly. Better yet, you’ll see through much of the other misinformation.

What a difference seven years can make…twice

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With all this talk of how high the Missouri River will be due to releases from a full Lake Sakakawea, I was reminded of a time not too long ago where the big lake was in the hurtlocker, desperately in need of water. I looked back in my photo collection and was quickly able to find these examples.

I was on a motorcycle trip and found myself in the Pick City – Riverdale area, and stopped on the east end of the Garrison Dam to eyeball things a little. I was amazed to see that the water wasn’t even anywhere near the spillway gates. In fact, I was able to walk up to them on dry land. Sensing an opportunity, I did so.

Here you can see the markers for observing the lake level, something quite unnecessary in this photo. I could remember back in 1997, when water was lapping over the top of these monster spillway gates. Fast forward seven years, and they were facing nothing but sand and sediment.

Of course, here we are another seven years out from the Flood of ’97, and the pendulum has once again swung in the direction of overwhelming amounts of water. I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the dam this spring, but I imagine it’s quite a sight. It’s interesting how we’ve seen such wild extremes in seven year intervals.

Remember this post in 2018, if it’s dry and we’re desperately in need of water! What a difference seven years can make.