Rain, Runoff Saturate The Region Area Prepares For Flooding As Rivers, Lakes, Concerns Rise

More rain, higher temperatures and a swollen snowpack kept area officials and residents alert Wednesday.

“We’re finally starting to see the fruit of that small stream advisory come to pass,” said Brian Avery, a National Weather Service hydrologist.

The freezing level was up to 7,000 feet Wednesday, well above any terrain in North Idaho.

While the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe rivers remained more than 5 feet below flood stage, streams and localized runoff from snowmelt overwhelmed some culverts and basements.

Melting snow on the Avondale Golf Course saturated the turf and then visited the neighbors.

Laurie Babcock was using a shop vacuum to suck water out of her basement until it started seeping in at a rate of about three or four gallons a minute.

“Then I broke the wheel on my shop-vac,” she said. “I lost ground….It kind of ruined my day.”

Babcock called a friend’s cleaning company. They tore out the basement carpet, diverted and pumped out the water and set up a large fan to dry out the basement.

Nearby, Lakeside Highway District workers were busy clearing culverts and digging new drainage ditches to keep streets from disappearing under water.

“It’s just getting started,” said highway worker Don Roberts. “We’re getting calls from all over. People are more scared than anything.”

In Rathdrum, city officials issued a “Declaration of Imminent Threat” to Kootenai County commissioners as they nervously watched two creeks in town race through town at high volume.

Officials warned parents to keep their children from the raging streams.

The city also is preparing sandbags in case the streams start jumping their banks. Outside of Rathdrum, sandbags and sand are available at Central Pre-Mix.

Coeur d’Alene city street workers have been filling sandbags when they’re not clearing storm drains. The bags will be put to use if Lake Coeur d’Alene creeps up the City Beach seawall and threatens downtown Coeur d’Alene, said street superintendent Tim Klein.

The lake level is at 2,126 feet, which is 2 feet below the summer level. In the next week, Washington Water Power predicts the lake level will rise two to three feet, still below flood level.

At Wolf Lodge Bay, three-fourths of the campground is under water. One family from that area is seeking shelter with the American Red Cross.

Hauser Lake has overflowed onto the northwest end of Hauser Lake Road, but so far the road still is passable.

“That’s normal for this time of year,” said Sandy Von Behren, operations coordinator for Kootenai County Disaster Services. “What’s not normal is the amount of snow that’s left to melt.”

The meltdown also swelled Hayden Lake enough to send water over the make-shift spillway in its dike. The county had the spillway constructed last week because of the concern that the dike might give way under high water.

The Weather Service forecast called for drier and cooler weather to return later today.

, DataTimes