Lake rises after Yellowstone flooding
Sakakawea a half-inch below desired minimum level
BY JAMES C. FALCON
james@nordaknorth.com
Catastrophic flooding from the Yellowstone River ravaged parts of Montana, leading to millions of dollars of damage in its wake. Farther down river, Lake Sakakawea benefited. Warm temperatures which caused rapid snowmelts, along with up to five inches of rain, led to the flooding of the Yellowstone River, which runs in southern Montana and into North Dakota, on the weekend of June 10-13 this year. The river connects with the Missouri River southeast of Williston. “The flood event we saw probably gave us about another five feet in the reservoir this year,” explained Todd Lindquist, operations project manager for the Garrison Project for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “We still have high inflows, so we’re still coming up. We’re seeing the end of a mountain snowpack – there’s less than five percent of the snowpack left; the mountain snowpack is just about gone.”
