After three months, Missouri River flooding ends in Omaha

By David Hendee

OMAHA, Neb (Reuters) - More than three months of Missouri River flooding at Omaha is finally over.

Nebraska's largest city had been under a National Weather Service flood warning since May 31, when the river first topped flood stage.

Although the river remains out of its banks, the 105-day flood officially ended Tuesday when hydrologists concluded that rain would not push the river back into the danger zone. The river Wednesday was about 7.5 feet lower than its crest in early July.

Flood warnings continue in other areas of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri downstream from Omaha as the river slowly ebbs.

The flooding was caused by unprecedented releases from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoirs in the northern Plains. Heavy spring rains and snowmelt runoff from the mountains and plains swelled the reservoirs to capacity, requiring the Corps to release historic volumes of water.

The flood was blamed for some deaths and caused billions of dollars of damage to levees, highways, communities and farmland from Montana to Missouri.

(Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune)