100 years ago in the Inland Northwest: Warm temperatures lead to major flooding

From our archives,

100 years ago

Warm temperatures finally returned to the Inland Northwest – creating a new kind of catastrophe.

Massive amounts of snow melted rapidly and caused terrifying floods all over the Inland Northwest.

Crab Creek, normally a quiet stream in sagebrush country, was on a rampage. It jumped its banks and flooded the town of Odessa. Water was “running down Main Street.”

The Tucannon River inundated the town of Starbuck. Parts of the business section were under water and “the big county bridge two miles below town is gone.”

A creek burst out of its banks and flooded Pomeroy. Water was reported as 3 feet deep in some parts of town.

Spokane was not spared. The hardest-hit section was Union Park, in East Central Spokane. Streets and sidewalks were submerged and the Union Park streetcar was stranded. A grocery store at Fifth Avenue and Freya Street was flooded. The water had apparently come from the high ground “in the direction of Moran Prairie.” High water also cut off access to Jefferson School, on Grand Boulevard and 37th Avenue.

A washout took out the streetcar line at Division Street and Cleveland Avenue.

Nighttime brought cooler temperatures and a drop in the floodwaters.