Tulsa District Corps Of Engineers Prepares For More Rain

Parts of Green Country are under a flood watch right now with several inches of rain expected to fall throughout Monday into Tuesday.

The Corps of Engineers has been dealing with high water for more than a week at Keystone Dam. The dam is still working hard, releasing 60,000 cubic feet of water per second. That's compared to the 100,000 CFS releases from last week.

The Corps started scaling back on Friday, knowing we could see some heavy rain this week. By doing that, the Corps says that frees up space in the river to prevent downstream flooding.

The Corps says there's currently a capacity of 45,000 CFS in the river, meaning there's still room for more than 336,000 gallons of water to flow into the Arkansas river every second.

Meteorologists say we could see anywhere from 2 to 4 inches that could impact the Keystone River Basin. If that happens Keystone lake, which is already 20 feet above normal, could jump again.

"We hope that we don't get too much to where we're forced to increase releases, but typically what would happen is once the rain hits, our forecasters have the chance to where it hit, what drainage basins that they're flowing into - then they'll adjust releases accordingly and the key is [to] prevent downstream flooding," said Keystone Lake Ranger Travis Miller.

The Corps has done a good job so far of doing that so far and says, just like last week, folks downstream don't need to panic because the systems are working just as it was designed.

There is some flooding upstream on Corps property which means a number of campgrounds will be closed Memorial Day weekend.