Newell SorensenNewell Sorensen, 98, died Feb-

ruary 10, 2013 in Kenosha, WI. Services will be on Saturday

at 11 a.m. at theGayville LutheranChurch with visit-ing starting at 9:30a.m. at the church.Burial is in theRosehill Cemeteryat Viborg.

Memorials maybe directed to theGayville LutheranChurch inGayville, SD.

Register online at www.viborg-funeralhome.com

Newell Nels Sorensen wasborn on October 19, 1914 to Mar-tin and Tina Sorensen on the fam-ily homestead at Irene. He wasbaptized at Maple Grove Churchat Irene and confirmed atBethany Lutheran Church in Vi-borg where his family movedwhen he was 7 years old. Heplayed baseball and football forViborg High School, graduating in1932. He then worked at the localfilling station until 1934 when hewent to work in the Civilian Con-servation Corps in both Mysticand Chamberlain, located in theBlack Hills of SD. In 1936 and 37

he attended barber school inSioux City, IA.

Newell married Kathleen Hor-locker on August 6, 1939 andmoved to Hooker. They operateda grocery store, gas station, bar-bershop and post office all at thesame time. He was called toserve in the US Army in 1943. Hewas trained for artillery at Wat-senville, CA, was stationed at Ft.Meade, MD, and then spent 14months on Ascension Island inthe South Atlantic Ocean as apostal worker for the Army. Hereturned to Hooker in 1946.

Their only child, James(Jimmy) Martin was born in Sep-tember of 1946. They moved intoViborg where Newell returned tobarbering. He was a faithful mem-ber of Bethany Lutheran Churchin Viborg, where he also taughtSunday School and served on thechurch council. In 1962, Jimmypassed away followed by hismother in 1978.

On July 9, 1983 Newell mar-ried Bernice Skove Huber in theGayville Lutheran Church wherethe couple lived for many years.They wintered in Mission, TXwhere they had a trailer homeand many “snowbird” friendsfrom around the country; enjoy-ing dancing, playing cards, shoot-

ing pool and golfing. In Novem-ber of 2010, they moved toKenosha, WI to be close to fam-ily. Newell, a life long member ofOdd Fellow Lodge and the Ma-sons, was known for manythings, among them his Danishwords and songs and his love offamily and of God.

He was preceded in death byhis parents, his first wife Kath-leen, his son Jimmy, a sisterErma Jensen, a brother Virgil anda stepdaughter Judy and hus-band Loren Edleman.

His memory will be cherishedby his wife Bernice; 2 stepdaugh-ters Janice (Ron) Soulek andJackie Huber and their families; asister Betty Johnson; 1 nephewMike; and other relatives andfriends.

Yankton Press & Dakotan

February 13, 2013

Bethene LockmanBethene Joy (Hutcheson)

Lockman, 76, formerly of Yank-

ton, died Feb. 6, 2013, in Abilene,Texas.

A meorial service will be heldthis May in Yankton.

Daryl BernardDaryl C. Bernard, 89, of Yank-

ton died Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, atthe Avera Sister James Care Cen-ter, Yankton.

Mass of Christian Burial is at10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 2, atSacred Heart Catholic Church,Yankton, with the Rev. MarkLichter officiating. Burial will bein the Sacred Heart Cemeterywith Military Graveside Rites bythe Ernest-Bowyer VFW Post No.791 and the SDARNG HonorGuard.

Visitations are 4 p.m. Friday,March 1, at the Opsahl-Kostel Fu-neral Home & Crematory, Yank-ton, with a rosary at 7 p.m.followed by a Scripture service at7:30 p.m. Visitations will resumeone hour prior to the service atthe church.

Wednesday, 2.13.13ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net

NEWS DEPARTMENT: news@yankton.net 3PRESS DAKOTANthe region

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IN REMEMBRANCE Norman A. Guenther

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SUBMITTED PHOTO

From left: Natalie Woerner, Izzy Heimes and Trystan Heimes enjoyed an afternoon of Scrabble com-petition at the Yankton Area Literacy Council's third Scrabble tournament on Sunday, Jan. 27.

Despite unseasonably rainyweather, participants from the tri-statearea gathered at The Center in Yank-ton for the third annual Yankton areaLiteracy Council's Spellebration Scrab-ble Tournament on Sunday, Jan. 27.

Adults challenged each other inthree tournament rounds. Students18 and under also took part in theevent.

In the 12 and under tournamentdivision, Trystan Heimes, Natalie Wo-erner and Izzy Heimes placed first,second and third, respectively. BeauHeimes took first place in the Youthdivision (12-18). in the Adult division,Kay Adams, Pam Monfore and AndraGates placed first, second and third,respectively.

“Spellebrate for a Good Cause” is afundraising event hosted by the Yank-ton Area Literacy Council (YALC), aUnited Way Agency. All proceeds areused to organize free tutoring classesfor Yankton area residents who needto learn reading skills. YALC funds pro-vide all tutoring materials and annualtutor certification for volunteer tutors.

YALC Board President LorettaSorensen says the tournament bene-fits both YALC and the Yankton com-munity by helping people helpthemselves.

“Funds raised through the tourna-

ment allow YALC to provide literacyskills to individuals with low levelskills or those who need to learn Eng-lish,” Sorensen says. “This truly is a‘good cause’ that helps individualsimprove themselves and in turn con-tribute to our community.”

YALC is a volunteer-based organi-zation that promotes literacy pro-grams in Yankton County andthroughout the region. The grouptrains and provides tutors for stu-dents desiring help with reading,writing, speaking, math, English as aSecond Language, and basic com-puter skills. YALC is a member ofUnited Way & Volunteer Services ofGreater Yankton, ProLiteracy Americaand the South Dakota Literacy Coun-cil.

YALC Coordinator, Bev Calvert,says dedicated tutors make the or-ganization possible.

“We are grateful for the many tu-tors who are making such a positiveimpact on our community,” Calvertsays. “They volunteer their talents,skills and time to enable our studentsto further their education.”

To learn more about YALC or foradditional information about thetournament, contact Bev Calvert at605-665-3048 or yalc@iw.net.

YALC Scrabble Tournament Spells Success

The drought has already ex-erted an impact in two areas, ac-cording to the Corps’ MikeSwenson.

The Corps and the U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service (USFWS) haveagreed to forego the spring pulsesthis year. Those pulses were setfor March and May.

In addition, the Corps has fore-cast that 2013 hydropower gener-ation will fall below normal, hesaid. “We are looking at 7.9 billionkilowatt-hours, while with the nor-mal reservoir level we would ex-pect to generate 10 billionkilowatt-hours,” he said.

Besides dealing with thedrought, Corps surveys haveshown changes to the MissouriRiver channel as a result of 2011flooding, Farhat said. During thatflood, the Corps released 160,000cfs through Gavins Point Damnear Yankton — and a similar fig-ure for Fort Randall Dam at Pick-stown — for several months.

In previous winters duringdrought, the Corps has reducedreleases to 12,000 cfs, Farhat said.However, the Corps has needed torelease 14,000 cfs this winter be-cause of the changed channel.

“It’s an indication of thechanges to the river bottom andother areas where (we have lost)as much as a couple of feet due todegradation, or scour,” she said.

The Corps controls the re-leases, but it doesn’t control thewithdrawal of water out of thereservoirs for municipalities andindustrial users, Farhat said. Thesystem contains room for flexibil-ity, she said.

“The reservoir system is de-signed to operate over a widerange of runoffs,” she said. “If youlook back to the historic droughtsfrom 1987 to 1993 and from 2000to 2007, the reservoirs fluctuatedwidely during those periods.”

Currently, the reservoirs areoperating 20-25 feet higher thanprevious droughts, she added.

The Corps could hold backwater at Gavins Point and releaseit at a later time in the event ofhigh runoff in eastern SouthDakota meeting downstreamneeds, Farhat said.

For the present time, GavinsPoint releases will remain at14,000 cfs to conserve water inthe reservoir system, Swensonsaid.

“The goal is to keep GavinsPoint releases as low as possiblewhile meeting the water intakeneeds on the lower river,” he said.

At the start of the runoff sea-son, which typically beginsaround March 1, the total volumeof water stored in the mainstemreservoir system is expected to be8.5 million acre feet (MAF) belowthe top of the carryover multipleuse zone, Swenson said.

The zone, often referred to asthe reservoir system’s “bank ac-count for drought,” contains 38.9MAF of water when full. It’s de-signed to provide service to theeight congressionally authorizedpurposes, though at reduced lev-els, through a 12-year drought likethat of the 1930s and early 1940s.

Gavins Point would need re-leases of 20,000-28,000 cfs to sup-port a navigation channel 8 feet

deep by 200 feet wide, Swensonsaid.

The ongoing drought and cur-rent snowpack have created abelow-normal chance of signifi-cant flooding across the MissouriRiver basin in 2013, according toKevin Lowe with the NationalWeather Service (NWS).

“That doesn’t mean there isn’ta chance of flooding or that it’snon-existent,” he said. “Placeshave experienced minor floodingduring a drought due to ice jamsor storms.”

In addition, much of the winteractivity remains, Lowe said.

“There is a lot of snow accumu-lation season ahead of us, andmuch could change beforespring,” he said.

The majority of the MissouriRiver basin remains classified assevere to exceptional drought, ac-cording to Corps hydrological en-gineer Bill Doan.

The mountain snowpack is cur-rently 96 percent of normal aboveFort Peck and 89 percent of nor-mal for the reach between FortPeck and Garrison, Doan said. Theplains snowpack contains theequivalent of up to 3 inches ofwater.

“The eastern portion of SouthDakota got (recent) significantplains snowfall events,” he said,“but it was in the far eastern partof the basin, below the reservoirsystem.”

Runoff during 2012 totaled 19.8million acre feet, or 80 percent ofnormal.

Based on current soil moistureand snowpack conditions, 2013runoff in the Missouri River basinabove Sioux City is forecast to be20.5 million acre feet, or 82 per-cent of normal.

The conditions are right forcontinued drought, said SouthDakota state climatologist DennisTodey.

“We agree the drought is goingto persist,” he said. “We may seesome slight improvement in thedrought monitor as we go throughspring, but we will still carry ondrought conditions, particularly inthe lower part of the basin.”

The plains currently sits in aneutral pattern for El Nino and LaNina, Todey said. February andMarch generally bring more activeweather patterns for precipitation,he said.

However, the plains can’t real-istically expect to make up a 12-16inch moisture deficit in a short pe-riod of time, Todey said.

“That’s kind of more than we’regoing to expect this spring,” hesaid.

The 30-day outlook doesn’tshow a significant indication ofmajor precipitation upstream ofthe reservoirs.

The forecast for April-Juneshows the disappearance of anymajor precipitation pattern, with alarge area of below-average pre-cipitation to the south, Todeysaid.

Any moisture would likely getsoaked into the parched soil,Todey said.

“In South Dakota, there are stillvery dry conditions at a very highlevel,” he said. “The U.S. DroughtMonitor doesn’t expect a greatdeal of runoff as spring goesalong.”

You can follow Randy Dock-endorf on Twitter attwitter.com/RDockendorf

CorpsFrom Page 1

skipped Obama’s speech. Missingwere Justices Clarence Thomas, An-tonin Scalia and Samuel Alito.

Jobs and growth dominatedObama’s address. Many elements ofhis economic blueprint wererepacked proposals from his firstterm that failed to gain traction onCapitol Hill.

The president implored lawmak-ers to break through partisan log-jams, asserting that “the greatestnation on Earth cannot keep con-ducting its business by drifting fromone manufactured crisis to the next.”

Yet Obama offered few signs ofbeing willing to compromise himself,instead doubling down on his callsto create jobs by spending more gov-ernment money and insisting thatlawmakers pay down the deficitthrough a combination of targetedspending cuts and tax increases. Buthe offered few specifics on what hewanted to see cut, focusing insteadon the need to protect programsthat help the middle class, elderlyand poor.

He did reiterate his willingness totackle entitlement changes, particu-larly on Medicare, though he hasruled out increasing the eligibilityage for the popular benefit programfor seniors.

Republicans are ardently op-posed to Obama’s calls for legislat-ing more tax revenue to reduce thedeficit and offset broad the auto-matic spending cuts — known as thesequester — that are to take effectMarch 1. The president accused GOPlawmakers of shifting the cuts fromdefense to programs that would helpthe middle class and elderly, as wellas those supporting education andjob training.

“That idea is even worse,” hesaid.

Obama broke little new groundon two agenda items he has pushedvigorously since winning re-election:overhauling the nation’s fracturedimmigration laws and enactingtougher gun control measures in thewake of the horrific massacre ofschool children in Newtown, Conn.Yet he pressed for urgency on both,calling on Congress to send him animmigration bill “in the next fewmonths” and insisting lawmakershold votes on his gun proposals.

“Each of these proposals de-serves a vote in Congress,” he said.“If you want to vote no, that’s yourchoice.”

Numerous lawmakers wore greenlapel ribbons in memory of thosekilled in the December shootings inConnecticut. Among those watchingin the House gallery: the parents of15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, shotand killed recently in a park just amile from the president’s home inChicago, as well as other victims ofgun violence.

On the economy, Obama calledfor raising the federal minimumwage from $7.25 to $9 by 2015. Theminimum wage has been stagnantsince 2007, and administration offi-cials said the increase wouldstrengthen purchasing power. Thepresident also wants Congress to ap-prove automatic increases in thewage to keep pace with inflation.

UnionFrom Page 1

sess it,” Curran said. “We didn’tsee any major damage, but thereis the wear and tear.”

Then last year, the MissouriRiver basin was hit by excep-tional drought. The Corps hasundertaken water conservationmeasures, including the possibil-ity of cutting re-leases to 9,000 cfslater this year.

The reduced re-leases have actu-ally provided moreopportunities toundertake projecton and aroundboth Fort Randall Dam andGavins Point Dam near Yankton,according to Corps spokes-woman Monique Farmer withthe Omaha District.

“The low flows help facilitaterepairing components of thedams,” she said. “From a con-struction standpoint, if there arenot large volumes of water flow-ing through the spillway gates inthe spring, we should be able tokeep working with very few de-lays.”

As a result, the projects aremoving forward, Farmer said.

“The work is progressing asscheduled on spillway slab re-pairs, spillway gates which arecurrently in design, and all otherrepairs at both Fort Randall andGavins Point,” she said.

Beside work on Fort RandallDam itself, the projects includeriverbank protection and takingcare of any bank erosion below

the dam, Curran said.“We own more than one mile

of river below the dam on eitherside,” he said. “It’s so close toour operation of the dams, weneed to make sure that thosebanks are protected. It’s criticalfor our project.”

Curran, who has worked atFort Randall since 1999, said hehas always remained confidentabout the stability of the damand reservoir. That confidencewas reinforced during and after

an unprecedented event such asthe 2011 flooding, he said.

“The dams were well built,we already knew that. I was com-fortable with the operation ofthe project,” he said. “Peoplewere asking that question (dur-ing the flood), ‘Do you feel like itcan handle it, do you feel it’ssafe?’

“Absolutely, without a doubtin my mind, we could handlethat flood. The project is de-signed for much more thanthat.”

For the first time, Fort Ran-dall used all four of its flood tun-nels during the 2011 high flows,Curran said.

“The first preference is to runthe flow through the powerplants and get the benefit of hy-dropower. Then it’s either runthe flood flows through the floodtunnels or spillway or a combina-tion of both, depending on what’sgoing on,” he said.

“Since the flow requirementwas so great, we decided that weneeded to do some inspection onthe spillway slab. The decisionwas to run the floors through thefour tunnels.”

Throughout the year, Curranremains in continual communica-tion with Corps officials inOmaha who make decisions onthe releases.

“They keep us in the loop. Welet them know if there’s any con-cerns,” he said. “They are moni-toring the whole system all the

time. They makesure the release de-cisions are basedon the (Corps)master manual andwhat is going on inthe basin.”

Curran will hostthe annual intera-

gency meeting in March. Thegathering provides a chance forhim to present an update on theproject’s operations and to hearthe public’s concerns.

“We invite the stakeholders inthe basin — those who are im-pacted by what is going onaround here and around thearea,” he said. “We tell them whatwe have planned for the upcom-ing year. They can ask questionsand maybe hear about thingsthey aren’t aware. From my per-spective, it’s a good chance tosee and talk with people.”

The discussion will likely in-clude the ongoing projects, Cur-ran said.

“With the flood over, it hascome down to maintenance,” hesaid.

You can follow Randy Dock-endorf on Twitter attwitter.com/RDockendorf

DamFrom Page 1

“Absolutely, without a doubt in my mind,we could handle (the 2011) flood. The proj-ect is designed for much more than that.”

TOM CURRAN