Ice being watched for flood risks

Don't let those 40-degree temps fool you. There's still a lot of ice on area rivers.

And ice can bring ice jams, and ice jams can bring flooding, said Jeff Reese, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Valley.

“We have various situations out there where we do have ice movement,” Reese said Tuesday.

“We have a couple of ice jams in place, and consequently with that you really have to keep your eye on it,” he said.

Water backing up behind an ice jam is going to release itself at some point, he said. “When it does, based on the current surroundings around that area, if you're adjacent to a community, obviously you're going to have some flooding issues.”

Still, Reese said, the flooding possibilities in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa don't look too dire, at least for the time being.

“Our problem right now is probably going to be more . . . the potential of flooding due to ice jams as to typical spring snow melt,” he said.

“Granted, we had a lot of snow. But our river channels are able to handle that additional capacity. So right now, we don't look to have too much in the way of flooding.”

Any flooding is likely to be minor, especially compared to what eastern Iowa or the Dakotas could see, Reese said.

There were two flood warnings issued: for the Big Blue River near Crete, Neb., and the East Nishnabotna River at Red Oak, Iowa.

The weather service issues a flood warning when it expects flood stages to be reached or exceeded. A flood advisory is an alert that flooding may become a problem.

Several flood advisories had been issued by Tuesday afternoon.

“The reason I'm going with flood advisories as opposed to warnings is there's really no strong indication that we're going to surpass our respective flood stages,” Reese said.

There was a flood advisory for ice jam flooding primarily in southern Platte County; another advisory for central Stanton County and western Cuming County; and an advisory in southwest Iowa that encompasses central Fremont County, central Pottawattamie County and eastern Mills County.

State Farm Insurance on Tuesday encouraged area residents to be aware of local flood risks and recommended precautions to protect life and property.

“With the spring thaw, it's an excellent time to get the reminder out to everyone. Warmer weather's here, obviously our melting is well under way, and we've also started to receive some rain, which we haven't seen in a while,” said Tanya Patzner, an Omaha State Farm agent.

In Des Moines, weather service meteorologist Jeff Johnson said Iowans should keep an eye on river forecasts. The flooding potential will remain for several days across Iowa, he said, with the peak expected to come later this week through next week.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

Contact the writer:

444-1074, john.keenan@owh.com

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