Spokane River access closed throughout Spokane County due to raging water

Until the high water recedes, public officials in Spokane County are asking people to stay away from the Spokane River.

That goes for river access spots in the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley, as well as in unincoporated areas of the county.

Deputy Mark Gregory, spokesman for the county sheriff’s office, said access to the river would remain closed until it’s deemed safe.

“We’ll continue to assess it,” he said. “When the danger’s over with, we’ll inform everybody.”

The river in Spokane crested around 5 a.m. Wednesday morning at 28.7 feet – the highest it has been since May 23, 2008. The river is flowing at 42,800 cubic feet per second over Spokane Falls, the equivalent of 321,000 gallons of water per second, according to the National Weather Service.

The Spokane River has a mean flow of 9,030 cubic feet per second and sits at 21.52 feet.

Residents in low-lying areas seem to have been spared the worst of what the roaring river has to offer, including those in flood-prone regions such as Peaceful Valley and East Upriver Drive. Along East Upriver Drive, water didn’t appear to breach the walls of sand bags set up in driveways or along walkways.

In Peaceful Valley, the river breached the Peaceful Valley River Walk on Monday and spilled onto Water Avenue near Ash Street. By Tuesday, the holes were successfully plugged, keeping more water from spilling through.

But by Tuesday afternoon, water was spilling over, prompting the city to install a concrete dike and stack several hundred more bags of sand, said Ken Gimpel, the business and services director for Public Works and Utilities. The city also ran gas-powered pumps all Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.

“We’ll do that again tonight,” Gimpel said. “The river crested last night, and the hope is it will go down for now.”

Spokane Valley on Tuesday joined the city of Spokane in closing access to the Spokane River within city limits, citing high water and swift currents. The announcement Tuesday at the city council meeting came hours after Spokane Mayor David Condon declared a flooding emergency and said the river is closed to all users within city limits. Both pedestrian suspension bridges inside Riverfront Park also were closed.

In addition, the Spokane County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday closed access to the river in unincorporated areas of the county “due to dangerous conditions caused by high water levels.”

The county warned, “Do not go into the river and exercise caution around other waterways while water levels remain high.”

One lane of State Highway 95 was reopened in Boundary County Wednesday morning after a mudslide Tuesday night closed the highway in both directions.

The slide, about 10 feet deep and 75 feet wide, happened around 8:40 p.m. near milepost 498, about seven miles south of Bonners Ferry, said Michael Meier, director of Boundary County Emergency Management. One car was pushed off of the roadway along with mud and trees, but nobody was injured, Meier said.

Emergency crews from the Boundary County Sheriff’s Office, South Boundary Fire, Emergency Management and Idaho Department of Transportation worked through the night clearing debris, Meier said. They were able to reopen one lane Wednesday morning but are continuing to monitor the hillside.

“It’s quite a mess and that hillside is still very active,” he said. “It may be one lane for a while.”

Meier said the harsh winter and continued rain has stretched county resources thin as the county “has roads closed all over the place.”

“It’s quite a mess up here,” he said.

The Washington State Department of Transportation reported that U.S. Highway 395 remained closed north of Colville Wednesday because of water over the road.