Half of U.S. at elevated flood risk, says NOAA (by Wallace Witkowski)

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service see an above-average risk of flooding in half of the United States over the next few weeks as heavy snow melts, the agency said Thursday. "The highest spring flood risk areas include the Red River of the North, which forms the state line between eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota, the Milk River in eastern Montana, the James and Big Sioux Rivers in South Dakota, the Minnesota River, the upper Mississippi River basin from Minneapolis southward to St. Louis, and a portion of lower New York, eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey," the NWS said in a statement.