DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The latest Army Corps of Engineers figures say the reservoir that protects Des Moines from Des Moines River flooding is expected to peak at around 75 percent of capacity next week.
But the Saylorville Lake manager also says those figures could change — and alarmingly so — with heavy upstream rainfall on already saturated ground.

Jeff Rose is the Corps’ operations project manager for Saylorville, and he says Tuesday morning’s lake peak forecast of nearly 881 feet above sea level is down from Monday’s forecast of 883.5 feet, despite heavy local rain.

He says the current inflow is more than double the controlled outflow. The outflow can go only so fast without causing river flooding downstream, so the Corps must balance that against the inflow, using the reservoir to handle the difference.