• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- No major flooding is expected from up to nearly 5 feet of rapidly melting snow that blanketed western South Dakota during an early fall storm that killed at least one person, collapsed several buildings and left tens of thousands without power, officials said Tuesday.
• "We still have some creeks and streams that can still hold quite a bit of moisture," Melissa Smith, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Rapid City, said. "If anything, we might have some minor flooding conditions. Right now, we're not looking for anything major or widespread.
• Officials and residents meanwhile were working to clean up after the weekend storm in western South Dakota's Black Hills cut power to tens of thousands of customers, brought travel to a standstill, left cattle ranchers dealing with heavy losses and damaged numerous buildings.
• Smith said the area had abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions before the storm, so much of the water from melting snow is soaking into the unfrozen ground. Creeks and streams were running low, so they also can handle runoff, she said.
• Minor flooding is possible, particularly where snow drifts block water from running into creeks and streams. Between half and inch to an inch and a half of rain is predicted for the area Thursday and Friday, but that also will soak into the parched ground, Smith said.
• Calen Maningas, a Rapid City firefighter working in the Pennington County Emergency Operations Center, said the city-county Water Rescue Team was put on notice to deal with any flooding or water damage problems, but no major flooding was expected.
• Rapid City is protected from floods by the green belt, essentially a giant park running through the city along Rapid Creek, which was established after the June 1972

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