(AP) -- The Army Corps of Engineers has commissioned a study of its handling this year of flood management along the Missouri River amid criticism from officials in downstream states that it waited too long to release water from upstream reservoirs.

Corps spokesman Steve Wright said Friday that a four-person panel of experts will begin assessing its 2011 management of the waterway later this month and complete its review by Dec. 2.

The panel will be comprised of a retired civil engineering professor and hydrologists from the National Weather Service, U.S. Geological Survey and National Resources Conservation Service.

Sections of northwest Missouri and southwest Iowa remain underwater because of flooding. The corps began releasing massive amounts of water from the reservoirs on June 1 because they were overflowing from record runoff from the Rockies.

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