Because of record snowfalls in Montana that are quickly melting because of extra heavy rains, the upper Missouri basin is going to flood through most of the summer. The 5 dams on the Missouri are at capacity and the last dam Gavins Point dam (between NE and SD, located near Yankton, SD) will be releasing 150,000 cubic feet of water per second will be flowing out of the dam in the next couple of weeks, think of it as 150,000 basketballs moving by per second. There is some flooding right now, the Missouri River at Omaha is at about the 1993 levels of the great midwest floods - but it's going to get worse, this will last until late August. There are two riverboat casinos in Council Bluffs Ameristar and Harrah's and one Racino - Horseshoe.

Harrah's is going to stay open (Unless we have some monster thunderstorms dumping lots of water). Most of the property is on the dry side of the Federal Levy. Ameristar - May have to close. I don't know if the boat can go much higher, probably by the end of the week they could see water in the lower areas of the pavillion. Plus access to the property might get flooded out. Horseshoe should not have any problems - The levy's are expected to hold (we will see). Below are some photos from today - remember this is not the worst of it. Omaha (across the river) basically is going to be in pretty good shape. Depending on elevation - there will be a lot of damage down the entire river below Gavins Point dam. Parts of Missouri Valley, Iowa is expected to be under 10 feet of water. Hamburg, Iowa is expected to be 10-15 feet underwater. Myself I live in west Omaha, on a hill 10 miles away from the river, my elevation is roughly 250' higher than the river, so I should be just fine. I will be going on vacation when I return I will get some more photos.

You will notice the Jersey barriers in front of the North entrance to Harrah's. That is to block any floating debris (trees, docks, junk) from hitting the building. You will notice most of the windows have been removed - this is so the water can move through. Some windows could not be removed because of settling, so they left them.

See the security guards head, that is how high the water will be at this enterance - baring any big storms. The North entrance is closing on Tuesday.

The casino ramp to the casino will be lowered to board on the lower level of the boat - this has never been done before. You will notice the the parking garage, the lowest level (supervisor and manager parking) is flooded out already.