but they had some other information.
There is a pile of sand at the Sorenson Beach parking lot south of LAKEVIEW Resort. As of this morning, the word is that LAKEVIEW is storing the bags for filling with sand. Just come in and ask for what you need...
"From: Smith, Richard - Hayti, SD
Subject: March 15 Poinsett Update
Will keep trying to get these updates out, as interest keeps growing. I
also appreciate the comments that many of you are making or asking and
hopefully we keep everyone informed with the situation.
Saturday night we received rain here and north into Codington County.
Early Sunday morning the Big Sioux River began to show life north of
Watertown to Castlewood with some gauging stations on the river jumping
5-7 ft within just a few hours. The outlet structure on Lake Poinsett
had the gates closed Sunday when it appeared all movement out of the
lake had stopped. At the time of closure approximately 2 1/2 ft of water
was at the gates over the concrete sill.
By Monday morning nearly the entire Big Sioux River flood plain was
under water from Watertown working to Estelline (as far as I checked).
Many roads had water flowing over them in the traditionally expected
places. The Boswell diversion gates (which are closed) were being
overtopped by about 1 foot of water, but some of that was probably due
to problems with ice flow through a bridge on the River. There was not
significant overland flow to Dry Lake at that time, again indicating
that the diversion issue was more of an ice problem on the River.
Monday also saw considerable pressure on the river side of outlet gates
as leakage could be observed boiling up on lake side. Possible a rock or
two may have been closed upon when gates lowered. Attempt may be made to
raise gate slightly to release rock with pressure from water now and
then close tighter.
Dolph Creek opened up fully on Monday and is running just about at full
capacity to get through bridges on its way to Lake Norden. I just spoke
to farmer along the creek and he said it was dropping slightly today,
after culverts and bridges opened up. Lake Norden Spillway had 1 foot of
overflow.
Western watershed-roads are going under water. All low areas, ditches
etc. are filled.
Today- I'm watching the hydrographs for Big Sioux River supplied by
NOAA. You can access them through KELO website by going to Spring
Flooding section under news or just go to NOAA and click on "water" tab.
Current crests are just below 1997 and 2001 record levels. This matches
with what we expected for runoff potential. The western watershed had
the same snow conditions as the Big Sioux River this year, so we can
assume that runoff from the west will approximate that received in 1997
and 2001. From travels yesterday in the west, we have much more water
this spring than last spring already pooled that will have to come to
Poinsett. In 2001 we added 6 ft to winter Poinsett levels, in 2009 we
added 5 ft plus. It seems very possible that we could add 5-6 ft to
Winter 2009-10 water levels this Spring from water on the ground
presently. Starting out with higher winter levels than previous years,
well, you do the math.
Now if that isn't enough to think about. Last Sunday several measured
the ice depth on Poinsett of 2 ft thick. Clouds and 34 degrees may melt
snow but little ice. The rise in water will be steady with the only
question being how high. The ice could be the problem that either goes
away or becomes the story.
SAND:
LPWPD voted to purchase 20,000 bags and when the are used, and down to 2,500 they have the approval to purchase another 30,000 additional bags.
The County has put sand at Lake View and Hammer's pasture on the north side of the lake. There is work to get more sand at other locations."
