Water rushing into river basin
Major flooding in the forecast
Major flooding is occurring or forecast throughout the Red River basin, according to the National Weather Service River Forecast Center.
Major and moderate flooding is forecast at several points on the Red River, including Pecan Point near DeKalb, Gainsville in Texas; Arthur City, Okla.; Fulton and Index, Ark.; and others all across the Red River basin.
As of Tuesday, the water levels included:
Pecan Point—33.13 feet— flood stage is 24 feet. Expected to rise to 34 feet May 28.
Index, Ark.—20.97 feet— flood stage is 25 feet. Expected to rise to 29.6 feet May 31.
Fulton, Ark.—19.77 feet— flood stage is 27 feet. Expected to rise to 30.7 feet May 31.
Spring Bank near Doddridge, Ark.—34 feet— flood stage is 37 feet. Little change through May 31.
Shreveport, La.—28 feet— flood stage is 30 feet. Expected to reach 29.5 May 31.
Lake Texoma overtook its spillway early Sunday morning, and water has been flowing into the Red River with no control since.
Texoma’s pool elevation at 6 p.m. Tuesday was 643 feet and rising, said Paul Balkenbush, Corps of Engineers assistant project manager at Lake Texoma.
Releases through both hydropower generators are being made at full capacity, 9,000 cubic feet per second, and
three flood conduits are providing 36,000 cubic feet per second relief.
Water is estimated to be running over the spillway at about 33,000 cubic feet per second, but this release changes with pool elevation, he said.
This is the fourth time in the lake’s 58-year history it has topped the spillway—other instances were in 1957, 1990 and 2007. The spillway is topping out at 643 feet or about 3 feet above maximum level for the lake.
The aggregate release from Lake Texoma, including the generators, flood conduits and spillway, is about 78,000 cubic feet per second.
Projected water levels are figured based on ongoing water releases with no additional rainfall in the drainage basin above Dension Dam at Texoma.
The schedule of releases through hydropower generators and flood conduits is subject to downstream river conditions and the condition of other reservoirs in the lower Red River basin.
A comparsion to 1990 shows the levels of the river in May, 1990:
Pecan Point north of DeKalb at 34.3 feet May 6, 1990
Index at 32.3 feet May 10, 1990 Fulton 34.3 feet May 12,1990 Shreveport, La. 34.5 feet May 15, 1990
Conditions of Lake Texoma may be found at swt-wc.usace.army.mil/deni.lakepage.html. Conditions for the Red River basin may be found at srh.noaa. gov/abrfc.