The Army Corps of Engineers plans to begin reducing the amount of water being released from dams into the swollen Missouri River in August, but flooding will likely linger into the fall in parts of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri, officials said Friday.

The corps will gradually reduce the amount of water being released from upstream dams to decrease the risk of damage to levees, but it will try to coax the river back into its banks in flooded areas as soon as possible so that repairs can be made, Brig. Gen. John McMahon said.

"We have a record amount of water to evacuate from the system and very little time to do that before winter," McMahon said.

The corps has been releasing massive amounts of water from the six dams along the river to deal with heavy spring rains and above-average mountain snowpack.

McMahon defended the way the corps has managed the river this year because he says no one anticipated the amount of water the agency would have to deal with. He said the lessons from this extraordinary year will be applied in the future.