Margaret S. Petersen
It was considerable. I mean it was very, very, fast.
It would have always been like that.
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In the spring?
The Missouri River had high flows in the spring from snow-melt runoff from the upper
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basin.
Regardless of whether the dams were there?
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Yes. In fact, it would have been worse before the dams were constructed. This picture (in
River Engineering) shows the Arkansas River rectified with dikes and with bank protection
to stop the bank erosion and bring the channel into a nice, smooth alignment.
With the wing dams and the revetments and. . .
Yes. There can be a large difference in the bed elevation of an alluvial river during floods
with scour on the rising side of a flood hydrograph and deposition on the recession side.
There is a figure in the Linsley, Kohler, Paulhus hydrology book showing the change in bed
elevation of the Missouri River in the 1952 flood through the bridges in Omaha. It deepened
about 30 feet on the rising side of the flood hydrograph and by the time the flood was over,
it
filled in feet. If measurements were taken before and after the flood, you'd never
know how deep the maximum scour had been.
You had that huge scouring effect when it came down in the spring.
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Yes. If you talk to people in Omaha, you'd probably see the same cross section.
I mean just the speed with which the water was going by was very impressive. And you
could see why it could be real dangerous for.
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Do you have any idea what the discharge was?
No.
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