State declares Eastport flooding state of emergency

Boundary County Commissioner Chairman Ron Smith on Wednesday asked Idaho officials to declare the flooding in Eastport a state of an emergency.

The Moyie River at 5 a.m. yesterday had reached 10 feet, covering 3,000 to 4,000, 75-pound sandbags that volunteers had placed in the area over the past five days.

“This morning, many of the Eastport houses have water all around them,” said Bob Graham, incident commander for county emergency services. “There was water over the banks and all over our bagging operations.”

The 15 homes affected by the flooding are 1.5 miles south of the Canadian border off U.S. Highway 95, Graham said. No one had to be evacuated.

Forecasted by the National Weather Service, the flooding is due to the winter’s near record snowfall coupled by a colder-than-normal spring and last week’s 85-plus-degree temperatures.

The river reached the 8-foot level Saturday and the 9-foot flood stage on Sunday, Graham said.

Volunteers began placing sandbags in the area on Friday.

Among them was convicted burglar Dominick Curtiss and two other inmates from the Boundary County Jail.

“Feels even better to give back to the community instead of getting in trouble,” Curtiss said Monday while place sandbags near the river. “We started working at six this morning and will work as long as they want us to.”

The flooding had folks like resident Ken Blockhan concerned. This is the first time Blockhan has seen his property in Eastport flood in the four years he has lived there.

“I couldn’t have done it without them,” said the 75-year-old. “It is great and I bet there are glad to get out of that old place.”

Graham feels confident the state will declare the area an emergency.

“We’re going to ask so resources are available to us,” Graham said.

He does not know how much money has been spent so far, but much of the work has been done by volunteers and the county road and bridge department.

“We were successful in keeping the water from flowing around these buildings and off of the main roads,” Graham said. “As of this morning, that’s all changed. We have water all around all of the homes and most of the roads are flooded.”