As the media covers the flooding of the Red River valley I keep wanting them to answer a question. But somehow they don't hear me when I ask the TV....
They keep talking about Dikes being built to the 41 or 43 foot mark and the river cresting at the 41 foot mark (or metric equivalents). 43 feet from what? What is the baseline? The riverbed? "Normal" water levels?
Anyone know????
I grew up in the Missouri River valley, and I believe that generally they are talking about feet above flood level, so that would be about 43 feet above bank full. When a river "crests" in flood the middle of the river can be several feet above the sides and I think they measure the number of feet above flood at the crest when that happens. This is just anecdotal so someone else may have a different take.
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