Floodwaters Leave A Big Mess Behind Debris And Contamination Should Keep Swimmers Off Beaches

Floodwaters are receding around most of the region, but they’ve left behind enough kindling along City Beach to drop the bottom out of the local firewood market.

With the deluge of junk washed ashore here - including bottles, ghosts of Styrofoam past and an entire tree - park and disaster services officials are urging parents to keep their children out of the water.

“Lots of that debris has nails in it,” said Bill Schwartz, director of Kootenai County Disaster Services. “With bacteria and water contamination - all things which come with the flood - it’s not a great idea to get into the water at this time.”

That’s bad news for vacationers who normally would have hit the Lake City for the Memorial Day weekend. And it could be some time before park crews can begin cleaning up.

Doug Eastwood, city parks director, walked the waterfront Wednesday. Although Lake Coeur d’Alene is dropping 3 to 4 inches every day, he said water is lapping hungrily against the seawall.

“Near the shoreline is loaded with debris,” Eastwood said. “And I know that when you look out into the lake, some of it is still floating just beneath the surface. Boating-wise, you’re going to risk hitting something.”

Aside from debris problems, flood watchers around Lake Coeur d’Alene voiced cautious optimism for the second day in a row.

Water levels on the St. Joe River dropped below 37 feet for the first time in more than a week. John Coyle of the Army Corps of Engineers said the field office there would be staffed until next Friday, but that the “immediate threat seems to be gone.”

On all Benewah County waterways, the sheriff has promised to strictly enforce a no-wake rule - boaters face a $75 fine. The water is high enough, Coyle said, that waves from a sightseeing cabin cruiser “could be disastrous.”

And don’t touch those sandbags, Coyle added.

“People have been talking about taking down berms or sandbags,” he said. “Don’t do it. There is still snowpack up in the mountains.”

Schwartz had much the same advice for residents of Harbor Island near Coeur d’Alene, where water is down drastically in just the past two days.

“Caution is the key word,” he said. “If you’ve done sandbagging, do not disturb them. If the water comes up again, we don’t have the people to do them.”

In Kellogg, sink holes created by raging Milo Creek had chased a dozen people from the Amy Lynn Apartments last Friday. The residents have been cleared to return to their homes, and a Red Cross shelter where they’ve been staying will be closed this morning.

“We’ve been real busy and we’re a very small chapter, so it’s kind of amazing our volunteers have been able to accomplish all that,” said Carol Hall of the Red Cross’s Panhandle Chapter.

Boundary County officials also indicated the worst of the flooding may be over on the Pack and Moyie rivers, which feed the Kootenai. Disaster services coordinator Dave Kramer said flow over the Moyie Dam was down 3 feet.

“The long term damage has yet to be determined,” Kramer said. “We’ve had a lot of houses with water in them, and some of the dikes here have seen some erosion. But overall, we’re looking to be in pretty good shape.

At Boileau’s Resort in Bayview, employee Felix Walton has been monitoring lake levels on a yard stick he mounted to a dock piling. Walton said Lake Pend Oreille still was rising about half an inch every four hours - a lot slower than it has been in past days, he said.

Walton’s right, said Albeni Falls dam manager Bob Schloss, who has been monitoring water levels for the lake and the Pend Oreille and Clark Fork rivers.

The rate of fill in the lake is substantially down. Four days ago, it was rising at a rate of about a foot a day. Now, it’s only rising about 2.4 inches every 24 hours. But Schloss still doesn’t expect the lake and the river levels to begin dropping before May 28.

“And quite frankly, I think we have enough snowpack left in the mountains to go even later than that,” he said. “We’re still going to see quite a bit of water here.”

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