Sandbagging Begins On Snake

Eastern Idaho communities spent Wednesday filling sandbags as a record flow of water spilled into the Snake River from a reservoir nearly full to the brim.

“Hopefully, Mother Nature will quit sending us all this water all of a sudden,” said Dell Suthmeier, facility manager at Palisades Dam. “We’re just going with the flow.”

The Idaho Air National Guard also began airlifting 80,000 sandbags and emergency supplies from Coeur d’Alene and Boise to the Idaho Falls area.

The reservoir has a capacity of 1.2 million acre-feet of water and was about 94 percent full late Tuesday, Suthmeier said.

About 35,000 cubic feet per second were being released Wednesday, up from 27,000 cfs the day before.

Previously, the highest level downriver at Heise was 27,000 cfs. Flood stage in that area is considered to be 24,500 cfs.

Under a Jefferson County volunteer alert, nine families evacuated from the farming town of Roberts north of Idaho Falls.

“They’re not sure if they’ll evacuate the entire town or not,” said Darren Blagburn, spokesman for the Idaho Bureau of Disaster Services.

Downstream, Bingham County officials moved to seal a 30-foot gap in the breached Riverside Canal with concrete blocks on the east side of Interstate 15 to protect the thoroughfare from being inundated.

Two important river crossings, the U.S. 26 bridge near Interstate 15 and another at West Bridge Street, may be closed as a safety precaution.

Local officials set up 24-hour telephone lines and scrambled to assist residents in immediate danger.

“Problems arise, and you find solutions,” Bingham County Commissioner Wayne Brower said. “It’s just part of business I guess.”

Jail inmates filled bags behind the courthouse while a steady rain fell.

“It doesn’t bother me at all to help,” inmate Charlie Hone said. “Being locked up doesn’t do you any good.”

The problem will be increased downstream from the confluence of the Henry’s Fork and the South Fork. Usually, flows in the Henry’s Fork would have tapered off already. But water rushing into the Teton River has kept the Henry’s Fork high.

It was 21 years ago last week when flood water from the collapsed Teton Dam filled basements and flooded businesses, churches and the Riverside Plaza.

“Today we may have a flood in Blackfoot because of the failure of the Teton Dam,”watermaster Ron Carlson said.