Awesome Parade today

[hey,littlecobra]

Thomas, here is a report for today:

Drier weather may stave off more flooding, aid in cleanup
By TIM TALLEY
Associated Press Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY — A relatively dry weekend forecast may help stave off flooding in the Red River Valley area and aid residents in northern Oklahoma as they continue to assess and clean up flood damage.

Lake Texoma, which straddles the border between Oklahoma and Texas along the Red River near Durant, stood about an inch below the top of a 640-foot-high concrete spillway, Ross Adkins, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Tulsa District, said Friday.

"It's lapping over the spillway now," Adkins said. The lake, with a normal level of 619 feet, is expected to crest about six inches higher than the spillway on Monday, when up to 3,000 cubic feet of water a second will be diverted into the Red River, Adkins said.

National Weather Service forecasts call for a 20 to 30 percent chance of storms on Saturday and Sunday, forecaster Erin Maxwell said early Saturday.

"The activity over the weekend probably wouldn't impact Lake Texoma levels too dramatically, but there's another low pressure system coming next week," Maxwell said.

"That's just the way the weather pattern has been this year."

The Corps is already pumping an estimated 27,000 cubic feet per second of water into the Red River to help steady the lake's level. Water levels in the river have fallen following heavy rains that swelled it and other streams.

"The downstream conditions are now permitting us to start putting water in," Adkins said. Lake Texoma is fed by a watershed that stretches across southern Oklahoma and into the Texas Panhandle.

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9G_Rtu5Cp...old/splway.jpg