Once again, the country club set is surprised that building McMansions in the flood plain means McMansions get flooded. Dakota Dunes has told all of its residents to get out:
The main concern is that the streets and other low lying areas will be inundated with water if there is a River overtop or breach. Examples of low lying areas would include the intersection of Bison/Levee Trail and Dakota Dunes Blvd, along with East/West Pinehurst and Dakota Dunes Boulevard
In the event of overtopping or breach, notification will be sent out via text and email. Again, for your safety, we are advising all residents to relocate as soon as possible.
This could last for five days or more, so prepare accordingly. o Dakota Dunes Community Improvement District Board of Supervisors are not confident that our protection can withstand the high water level a third time this year [Dakota Dunes Community Improvement District Board of Supervisors, notice to residents, reprinted on KELO Radio, 2019.09.17].
As Dakota Dunes residents pack up their Escalades and head for their second homes, their favorite Governor, Kristi Noem, is Trumpily calling the current flooding “the largest natural disaster our state has ever seen.” Floodwaters challenging a community’s dikes three times in one year and prompting a total evacuation is certainly bad… but when it keeps happening, maybe it’s time to stop raising levees and instead raze some houses and get out for good. There’s plenty of high ground around for McMansions….
It’s really not fair how god turns on those whom have tried so desperately to create a state of Christian redemption in the Valley of the Holy Missouri.
From NOLA Times-Picayune…..But that record-breaking federal response wasn’t assured in the first terrible days after the storm struck, when failed federal levees left 80 percent of New Orleans under water. It certainly didn’t look good when the No. 1 member of the House of Representatives, Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., told a hometown newspaper that it “looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed.” And when asked whether the government should spend billions of dollars to rebuild, he responded: “I don’t know. That doesn’t make sense to me.”
Dakota Flooded Dunes, consider yourself vanished.
Pink Slime Floats … (it’s mostly air)
Ah, CIRD, there’s the challenge for our Christian friends, trying to discern what God is saying to Dan Lederman: build a bigger levee, or go back to Iowa?
This is the money that owns Dan Lederman. What they (Roth family) say, goes in Dakota Dunes. I’ve always heard the village was built as a tax shelter for the Roth family. It’s not the first time money was hidden within the shady financial laws of the state.
Eldon N. Roth
AGE: 77
LOCATIONS
North Sioux City, SD
Aspen, CO
Sioux City, IA
+ 2 more
WORKED AT
owner – Beef Products Inc. aka Empirical
—
RELATIVES
Nicholas Roth
Jennifer Letch
Regina Roth
In the 2011 floods, the Dunes was in big trouble. I seem to remember Gov. Denny Do-right floating two loans of state money out to the Dunes and Ft. Pierre, both loans for multi-million dollars.the wording regarding wording was somewhere along the line of the is that we will get the money out there and take care of the financial particulars later. I do not remember ever seeing the “financial particulars” so wonder what they were and were the loans repaid. Not saying anything shady went on, but both communities are pretty cushy, and politically well connected in the areas affected by flooding. Can anybody answer my concerns regarding “the particulars”, or is my chemo brain running amuck? Thank you
According to this article, https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/a1/dakota-dunes-s-d-bounces-back-from-historic-missouri-river/article_4af83b80-49e4-5256-8543-9f4624293892.html
The CID has borrowed $13.6 million from the state to pay for its flood-related costs, which include building, maintaining and removing the levees, dewatering during the flooding, and repairs to the storm water system and streets afterwards.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state reimbursed 85 percent of eligible expenses, which has allowed the city to repay $9.4 million of its loan, which carries an interest rate of 4.5 percent.
To retire the remaining debt, the CID board recently voted to raise $2.5 million in additional property taxes over the next year, or $847,000 per year. A new debt service levy of $2.222 per $1,000 of assessed value will be added on tax bills payable this year. The move required the Dunes to opt out of the state’s property tax freeze.
Getting off topic, but this is an interesting read from the 2011 flood in the Midwest.
https://www.minneapolisfed.org/~/media/files/pubs/fedgaz/11-10/fedgazette_flood_issue_october2011.pdf
Says Gavins Point Dam usually flows 24ooo cfs and was at 160ooo cfs during the flood. That is a bunch of water.
Gavins Point has been running at 70,000 cfs most of the summer. They just backed it off to 60,000 cfs for a few days, then are going to 80,000 cfs till late in the fall.
Thanks for that info, Mike! That was really nice of the taxpayers to subsidize the choice folks in Dakota Dunes made to live in a flood plain.
I LOVE Jason Ravnsborg. He stumbles around, careening off the walls, without even being drunk. I admire him for having been able to survive in even an office as oblivious to its responsibility as the SoDak Atty Genl’s office has proven itself to be.
Some of you may not remember, but before the dams went in on the Missouri there used to be “Spring Flooding” almost every spring. That is why the “Dunes” are called the “Dunes”!! Just because people decided to build “Expensive Homes” there doesn’t mean the river is going to treat them any different. The dams can only control so much water as it comes down the river…flooding happens “up river” as well as “down river” and the water has to go somewhere! Water flows in to the Missouri below the dams also, and no one controls that.
I didn’t think South Dakota wingnuts could find a worse AG than Jackley. I see they took that as a challenge and proved me wrong. It is good to live in flyover iowa and I get to meet numerous former Dakota residents who move to NW iowa.
As an added bonus there has been a pair of young mountain lions in this area since Spring. They probably came from the Black Hills area.
Is the state still taking good care of Roundy’s little hovel on the river in Pierre? Or was it Fort Pierre?
Cory, first of all, no one in the Dakota Dunes community has been ordered out as your headline unfortunately says. The Dakota Dunes Community Improvement District did tell people to evacuate a couple of days ago, but also said in further emails that it was voluntary. If anyone had to evacuate it would be those whose homes bordered the river — but those are a small minority of the Dakota Dunes Community. It was also made clear to residents that IF the community’s water system became compromised then residents would be asked to evacuate. However, this would not be required. If a resident decided to stay, they could, they just wouldn’t have any water or sewer service. With all this said, I am attaching a copy of the memo we received today from the CID updating residents about the Missouri River levels. (You may have to copy and paste in your browser in order to see it.) https://dakotadunes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019-Resident-Letter.091819.pdf. While I live in the Dunes, I live on the “poor side” in the oldest apartment complex there. We chose to live there because the rent was cheaper there than it was in similar apartments in Sioux City. So, not all of us living in Dakota Dunes are rich and live in “McMansions” and are Republicans. Some of us, like my wife and I, are middle-class Democrats. We also question the wisdom of having a housing development built upon the sand dunes created by the winding Missouri River. However, you should blame MidAmerican Energy for that. My wife and I were born and raised in South Dakota and only moved back here from Sioux City two years ago. However, seldom a day goes by that we don’t talk about our regrets for moving to this state with its Republican-dominated state government, low-paid teachers, and bad roads.
Farmers have a plan that might protect those folks in DD and elsewhere dealing with flooding.
“Will Harris, co-chairman of the coalition and owner of a cattle farm, said at Wednesday’s press conference that a study done by research firm Quantis found that his farm sequestered 3.5 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent for every pound of beef he produced.
“The way we raise cattle is actually part of a solution to climate change. We are mitigating greenhouse gases,” Harris said.
The brief story is in The Hill.
is.gd/pJZzRF
Texas is flooding now as well. 34 inches of rain in 24 hours is kind of a lot. Imelda wasn’t even a hurricane but this kind of weather is what we can expect. Grow rice and cranberries.
I found this on Numlock News by Walt Hickey:
Batteries
As grids move to forms of power generation like solar and wind that operate intermittently, a key necessity is a way to store the excess generations in the windy and sunny times for use in the still and cloudy times. Lithium ion batteries are one solution, but the amount of lithium needed is currently cost prohibitive. One idea, from a company called Hydrostor, uses that excess energy to inject compressed air into underground storage caverns, then release it during times of energy need to drive turbines and generate electricity. The principle is already in use on a small scale, but making it work on an industrial scale is the challenge. The company has a 1 megawatt pilot project, a 2 megawatt one online in the coming weeks, and Australia funded a 5 megawatt pilot to be completed in 2020. The efficiency is lower — lithium ion batteries recover 90 percent of the energy they store, but the Hydrostor tech is only at about 60 percent — but then again I may not be an engineer, but digging a hole anywhere seems a lot easier than mining lithium.
Akshat Rathi, Quartz
It’s been raining A LOT up here in Western ND – where the floods of the Missouri originated in ’11 due to similar conditions. Will be a really wet Fall – saturated ground, and no ability to absorb any Spring run-off. Fair warning to all the down-streamers.
Richard, how long does it take floodwaters to run from western ND down to Sioux City?
That’s up to the Corp. Better question is – how much reservoir capacity are the Corp willing to forego to assure adequate capacity remains to contain the Spring runoff.
http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/current.html
The Corps says CURRENT runoff rates along the dam system are 538% above average for this week – and current available storage capacity is around 35% and 700% BELOW average for this week at the various reservoirs. To give you some idea.