A Way To Visualize 115,000 Cubic Feet

A couple weeks ago, 100,000 cubic feet per second probably didn't mean much to you.  But with images of rushing water along the Missouri River and many South Dakota homes and businesses in danger, that's changed.

Since we're dealing with water, its measurement is done in volume. To visualize, a television in the Storm Center is roughly a cubic foot. The height, length and width are all close to a foot. But as of today, 140,000 cubic feet are running through the Oahe Dam per second.

To better illustrate that, imagine a football field with the dimensions being 360 feet from the back of each end-zone and 160 feet from sideline to sideline. That's a surface area close to 57,000 square feet. Now imagine this field is two feet deep with water; that's roughly 115,000 cubic feet, which is close to the amount going through the Gavins Point dam per second.