By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Water releases from Gavins Point Dam upstream on the Missouri River are being scaled back by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the projected crest of the river has been lowered by the National Weather Service.

The Corps says it reduced releases from the dam at Yankton, South Dakota from 90,000 cubic feet per second to 73,000 Saturday morning. The Corps says it will continue to reduce releases from Gavins Point over the next few days, dropping to 20,000 cubic feet per second on Tuesday.

Widespread, devastating flooding in Nebraska prompted the Corps to increase flows from the upstream dam from 50,000 cubic feet per second to 90,000. While the move relieved pressure on Nebraska’s saturated river system, it increased fears the added water would cause additional flooding along the Missouri River downstream.

The National Weather Service reports the Missouri River actually dropped from just over 25 feet in St. Joseph to 24.85 feet at 5:30 Saturday evening. Still, NWS projects the Missouri will reach 29.3 feet by the middle of next week. That is lower than an earlier projection of 30 feet. The record crest of the Missouri River at St. Joseph is 32.1 feet, reached during the devastating flood of 1993.