Kootenai drops below flood stage |
| July 11, 2012 |
|
For the first time in nearly two weeks, the
Kootenai River has dropped below flood stage and
a flood warning that's been in place since June
24 has ended. But that doesn't mean our troubles are over. According to the National Weather Service, Spokane, river elevation at 1 p.m. today was 63.89 feet, .11 feet below flood stage of 64 feet. The river level is predicted to continue to fall slowly through the coming week, and any rises are expected to be minor and not push beyond flood stage, While this is good news, the level is sufficiently high that seepage, and subsequent crop damage, is likely to continue. The Kootenai River is expected to drop back to 60 feet above sea level by July 18, and until it does, fields inundated by seepage cannot dry sufficiently to begin assessing monetary damages due to crop loss, nor to fully assess the condition of dikes weakened by high water levels of long duration. According to Boundary County Emergency Management incident commander Bob Graham, this year's flood, caused by a combination of late snow melt and record June precipitation, can't be compared to the last significant flood of 2006, when the river level was well above flood stage, but for a considerably shorter period of time. Monetary damages in 2006 reached nearly $2-million, and Graham predicts that damages from this year's flood will exceed that. |