Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Outdoors blog

Ice dams threaten to flood portions of Hangman Creek

Latch Creek is a river of flowing ice as seen from the Valley Chapel Road bridge on Feb. 8, 2017. (Cody Toner)
Latch Creek is a river of flowing ice as seen from the Valley Chapel Road bridge on Feb. 8, 2017. (Cody Toner)

RIVERS -- Ice breakup and a stew of winter weather conditions are raising havoc with area rivers, including the Grande Ronde River in southeastern Washington and, closer to home, Hangman Creek, which is flowing ice.

Cody Toner snapped the photo above from the Valley Chapel bridge this morning.  He reported "ice dams all over the place," and said crews had worked Tuesday night to break up ice dams near Rockford.

Note the logs coming down with the ice.  You don't have to be a beaver to recognize the dam-building and flooding potential as the weather changes from cold to snow to rain-on-snow in the next 24 hours.



Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

Follow Rich online:




Go to the full Outdoors page