Reservoir Flow Stabilizes As Snowmelt Slows Pressure On Dikes, Levees Eases As Temperatures Cool

Cooling temperatures reduced the runoff from the melting snowpack on the Idaho-Wyoming border Friday, permitting federal water managers to stabilize the flow out of Palisades Reservoir into eastern Idaho’s swollen Snake River.

Combined with reduced flows from tributaries of the Snake, the pressure was easing on levees and emergency dikes in already flooded communities like Roberts, Firth and Blackfoot.

“Everything is holding so far,” Jefferson County disaster spokeswoman Lois Poole said.

And Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Diana Cross said that if runoff continues to abate, flows through Palisades Dam could begin falling late this weekend after the reservoir is brought back below maximum height.

Water is still standing over thousands of acres that were flooded last week when key levees broke near several communities, and a number of roads, including a stretch of Interstate 15, remained closed. Hundreds of homes sustained damage from floodwaters, and losses have been estimated as high as $50 million from the state’s third flood in 16 months. Two National Guardsmen involved in flood relief died in a helicopter crash on Thursday.

“It’s such a tragic thing,” Gov. Phil Batt told participants in Girls State, “not just the economic loss but the dislocation of families, and now we have these two deaths.”

Although the river was still running well above flood stage over hundreds of miles in eastern and southern Idaho, communities along the course were beginning to see slight declines in the water level. The river had dropped several inches below the bridge supporting the pipe carrying the bulk of the water for the 30,000 people in Twin Falls. It had risen to within an inch of the bridge on Thursday.

A flood warning remained posted for cities and towns along 250 miles of the river downstream form Blackfoot, but the National Weather Service lifted its flood watch for the remaining 90 miles to the Oregon border.

Meanwhile, an Army inspection team arrived from Alabama in eastern Idaho to begin the investigation into the cause of the Army National Guard helicopter crash that killed the new commander of the flood relief task force and one of his officers.

Maj. Don Baxter, 41, of Boise was making a reconnaissance flight of the stricken area when the OH-58 Kiowa went down in an open field north of Firth, also killing 1st Lt. Will Neal, 29, of Picabo.

Chief Warrant Officer Shelby Wuthrich, 27, of Boise, was dragged from the fiery wreckage by Sherry Lang, who lives near the crash site.

“He started screaming about his buddies in the helicopter,” Lang said. “He said, ‘Oh God, they’re dead!”’ Lt. Col. Jim Ball said Wuthrich apparently said something to Lang that “they had lost power and were attempting to control their rate of descent” when the crash occurred.

Ball said that while helicopters can glide safely to the ground without power, 25 to 30 mile winds at the time of the crash could have made a controlled glide difficult.