Record Flooding A Possibility

Pull out your hip waders, inflate the getaway boat and practice your sandbagging skills. At least if you live near water.

The region’s record snowpack - 150 percent of normal - may produce record flooding in the next several months. “We don’t want to panic people,” said hydrologist Phil Morrisey of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Boise. But “if I lived next to a stream or a river, I’d be sure I bought flood insurance.”

There is danger of two serious flood cycles this year. If there’s warm, rainy weather in the near future the low-elevation snowpack will turn into a torrent.

A week of unusually hot, June weather could have the same effect on the high-elevation snow, Morrisey said.

Snow depths have been stifling to all but skiers and snowmobilers since Thanksgiving, but now they seem to be increasing. The U.S. Customs office north of Metaline, Wash., shows nearly 203 inches, or 17 feet of snow, as of Wednesday.

It will take another dozen inches to break the record - 215 inches - stacked up in the winter of 1974-75, said Naoma Terzieff, a local resident. Considering floodwaters backed by less snow still submerged the Metaline City Park by July last year, this year “could be interesting,” Terzieff said.

She jokes that plans to begin filming Kevin Costner’s new movie, “The Postman,” in May could require rewriting the plot so snowshoes are the mode of mail delivery instead of horses.

Meanwhile, Lookout Pass Ski Area, near the Idaho-Montana border, has given up measuring the powder pile. Snow buried the 14-foot high measuring pole about a week ago, said J. Eischen, Lookout’s manager. “After that it’s just more snow.”

Eischen and crew are moving snow out from under the lodge windows, which are buried, so the roof can continue to unload. That’s a bit of a drift considering that in summer, the 6-foot-tall Eischen can just reach the bottom of those same windows.

Snow depth, however, is more of a hassle than a flood threat. One key is the water content of the snow. And that’s where serious worry could begin.

Take the Lost Lake measuring site, in the headwaters of the St. Joe River. The snow contained 80 inches of water on March 1. Thursday it had 90 inches.

Quartz Peak, near Mount Spokane, went from 30 inches of water in the snowpack to 36 inches.

The most important factor is what the weather delivers during the next 90 days. “The worst-case scenario is a combination of three factors: warm temperatures, heavy rain and strong, warm winds,” said Brian Avery, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Spokane.

“The best is a cycle of warm, dry days and cool nights.”

The forecast calls for a slightly higher than normal chance of a warm, wet spring, Avery added.

Washington Water Power, which runs the dams on the Spokane River, is paying close attention. “We’ve been making room for as much water as possible since December,” said Dana Anderson, a WWP spokeswoman.

But if the big water comes, there is only so much the company can do. And it has nothing to do with the Post Falls dam, Anderson said.

The channel where Lake Coeur d’Alene empties into the Spokane River is fairly narrow and fairly shallow, restricting how fast the spring melt can make it down river.

For the moment, however, all is well. Lake Coeur d’Alene is 3 feet below its normal summer elevation of 2,128 feet. In February 1996, when floods were tearing through the area, the lake was 2,135.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo Graphic: Snow packed with water

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHERE TO CALL Area residents can call 24 hours a day to check the level of Lake Coeur d’Alene and flows in the Spokane River. Washington residents can call (509) 482-8043. Idaho residents call (208) 769-1357.