South Dakotans reflect on Missouri River’s flooding

• High water

In this June 18, 2011, photograph, water fills the yard of a home in the Dakota Dunes community along the Missouri River near North Sioux City. (AP File Photo)

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Ray Schmitz used a pressure washer last September to free his driveway from a coating of mud.

It seemed at the time a heartbreaking and futile effort to reclaim his house from the Missouri River, and he likened the task to eating an elephant one bite at a time.

But this past week — nine months later — Schmitz proudly was showing off woodwork that he restored gleaming with a fresh finish, new hardwood floors and trim bearing his sophisticated angle cuts, and flood-damaged cabinets he is rebuilding in his garage in the Riv-R-Land Estates housing development in southeast South Dakota.

The 73-year-old Schmitz grinned.

“Some days we eat more elephant than others,” he said. “We’ve taken some big chunks.”

From Pierre to Dakota Dunes, South Dakotans along the Missouri River last year worked to fend off a summer-long flood described as the biggest in 500 years.

Homes, businesses, roads, parks and much more were damaged. And while property owners such as Schmitz and local, state and federal governments have made notable progress in recovering from the devastation, the work is not complete.

Even the four Missouri River dams and attendant structures in South Dakota suffered damage. For example, the Army Corps of Engineers’ Omaha District issued a request in April for proposals to repair minor damage to the Oahe Dam’s eight spillway gates.

And a ground-penetrating radar assessment at Gavins Point Dam in May showed possible damage under the concrete slab at the foot of the spillway gates.

The data still are being evaluated, according to John Remus, chief of the Omaha District Hydrologic Engineering Branch. But the dam’s integrity has not been compromised, the corps says.

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