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Corps: States can help improve flood forecasting

Missouri river flooding in Sioux City, Iowa, South Sioux City, Nebraska, and Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, on June 8, 2011. Levees were built near homes to prevent the Missouri river from flooding properties.
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Oscar Sanchez
/
US Department of Agriculture
Missouri river flooding in Sioux City, Iowa, South Sioux City, Nebraska, and Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, on June 8, 2011. Levees were built near homes to prevent the Missouri river from flooding properties.

The top military officer in charge of managing the Missouri River system says the agency needs help from states to improve its ability to predict water runoff. Brigadier General John McMahon spoke Wednesday at a meeting in Bismarck, N.D., with representatives of eight Missouri River states. McMahon says the agency is working to collect more data from other federal and state agencies about rainfall and melting snow.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple says the information needs to be available quickly to help state officials make flood management decisions. He says Montana had more accurate information about Missouri River runoff — but it wasn't readily available.

Dalrymple says data collection improvements wouldn't have prevented last year's extensive Missouri River flooding. But he says it could have helped limit some damage.

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.