"Everyone up here knows the routine," he said.

The Big Lake area, where water has been high for the past couple of weeks, has experienced major flooding in three of the last five years. But Sitherwood said this year promises to be much worse following weeks of high flows and increasing releases from the main stem dams in Montana and the Dakotas.

"I know they wouldn't admit it, but this is a manmade event," said Sitherwood, echoing a sentiment common in the area that the Corps of Engineers is mismanaging the Missouri River. "Nobody is going to tell me it isn't. It is probably going to be historical."

The commissioner said his own home is at risk. "Thank you, Corps of Engineers," he said.

The corps has said unusually heavy rains, not mismanagement, are to blame.

"What we are dealing with is a massive weather system that put a lot of precipitation in the system, particularly in Montana and northern Wyoming, in the month of May," Wingert said. "The end result is that water has to go somewhere." Before the rain, the corps already was dealing with record snowfall in the mountains above the Missouri and Platte rivers.