Kootenai may flood for 4-8 weeks

The US Army Corp of Engineers said Tuesday the Kootenai River will be at flood stage for four to eight weeks.

Upper Columbia senior water manager Joel Fenolio said at a Libby Dam public information meeting that runoff forecast for this year is going to be bad at best.

Local flood stage for the Kootenai River is at 1,764 feet and it was at 1,758 feet earlier this week.

Fenolio said worst case scenario, the river could get as high as a 1,770 to 1,775 feet.

The combination of slow snowmelt, heavy rain and snow have made it a historical year for run off levels.

Mick Shea has been the Libby Dam project manager for 15 years. He  said it is not business as usual this year at Libby Dam.    

“What makes this year so unusual is the lower snow pack level has stubbornly held on at a time of the year when we should have seen melting,” said Shea. “We can only control the amount of snowmelt above the dam.”

This is dependent upon the weather. Meteorologist Larry Schick said this has been a La Nina year and it produced an above normal amount of snowfall.

Since the temperature has stayed cool for so long the Kootenai Basin has not lost the lower snow pack as steadily as it should have. 

“This year’s snowfall has pushed snow measuring equipment to historic amounts for this time of year,” said Schick.

Schick said they are hoping for the weather to shift to more normal conditions but the information changes daily.

“If we top it off with rain and higher temperatures we are in for even more challenge,” he said.

Boundary County emergency management incident commander Bob Graham said this is of huge concern.  The average amount of water held behind Libby Dam is 5.8 million acre feet, and the dam is currently at 8.2 million acre feet. A per acre foot unit is one acre of water one foot deep.

“That is a major amount of water difference,” Graham said. 

What alarms Graham most is that flood damage within the farm community starts at the current 1,758 feet. 

In 2002 when the flood waters rose to 1,758 feet, farmers had to endure $2 million worth of crop damage and the level was at flood stage for only a few days, according to Graham.

“This is extremely bad news for the community and that amount of water for that length of time will affect our farms like we have never seen before,” said Graham.  “There are 23,000 acres of farm land in the bottom of the valley.”

Graham thinks the Moyie River will flood first and  within a week or two with the Kootenai following shortly after.

Boundary County Road and Bridge have placed sand and sand bags along the higher Moyie, one batch of bags can be picked up at Copper Creek Road and Highway 95, another on Dew Drop Road.

The Mount Hall Fire District will also have sand and sandbags available.

The US Army Corp of Engineers flood preparedness and the emergency management team will be keeping a close watch on the rivers and when and if Boundary County Commissioners declare an emergency they will get involved.

Residents and businesses in the river basin should be prepared for flooding.  The National Weather Service and downstream communities have plans in place to promptly alert potentially affected people about the situation and what action to take.

Citizens are encouraged to contact local emergency managers and work with them to determine the best path to prepare for potential flooding.