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Flood Warnings For Parts Of Big Sioux, Vermillion Rivers

National Weather Service

The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings along parts of the Big Sioux and Vermillion Rivers. 

Along the Big Sioux, a warning is in effect near Brookings. Warnings are also posted for the Big Sioux near Hawarden, Iowa, and at Akron, Iowa. The warning for the Vermillion is the area near Wakonda. Waters at these locations are forecast to crest above flood stage. 

Some agricultural areas along the Big Sioux and Vermillion rivers are expected to flood. The road south of the Brookings water treatment plant is forecast to flood, as is 217th Street between 468th and 469th Avenues in Brookings County.  Weather service officials say levees are in place to hold back the Vermillion River. 

The Big Sioux River near Brookings is expected to crest by Thursday afternoon and is forecast to crest near Hay-warden Thursday night. The river is expected to crest at Akron by Saturday. 

Phil Schumacher is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls. He says the time differences are like an ocean wave. 

"The water rises, and as it comes towards shore that rising water approaches the beach and then the wave breaks on the beach. Well, it's the same way with the river. Basically, you have a large volume of water that's flowing down the river. So, it first hits Hay-Warden, so they rise to flood stage and then start falling. And then downstream, it starts approaching Akron, so that rises and then falls at a later time," Schumacher says.

Flood warnings are also up for the Cottonwood and Redwood Rivers in Western Minnesota.