Rising water, rising worries

Flood-damaged sections of Montana 35 reopened to travel on Monday, but the recent

heavy rainfall continues to cause problems in the area.

Flood-damaged sections of Montana 35 reopened to travel on Monday, but the recent heavy rainfall continues to cause problems in the area.

Debris jams, plugged culverts, accelerated erosion and flooding have been reported on several creeks along the east side of the Flathead Valley. With more rain in the forecast, concerns have also been raised about rising lake levels and discharge rates at Kerr and Hungry Horse dams.

"We're in a little bit of trouble," said Larry Van Rinsum with the Flathead Conservation District, during a brief meeting with the county commissioners on Monday.

"The Swan foothills creeks are going nuts," he said. "The water's coming down in a hurry right now. There are at least 15 problem spots out there, and it's going to get worse."

Krause, Hemler and Handkerchief creeks are among the areas of concern.

Office of Emergency Services Director Alan Marble said several homes were isolated when Hemler Creek plugged a culvert and flooded a private road east of Lake Blaine. Another home was threatened by flooding on Handkerchief Creek.

"I expect more problems in that area," he said.

Marble noted that Hungry Horse Reservoir was also approaching full pool, meaning the dam will soon have to start releasing even more water into the main stem of the Flathead River.

The reservoir has risen more

than six feet in the last week. It's currently two feet below full pool, but a control room operator indicated that the dam would probably begin discharging water today.

To reduce the possibility of flooding along the river and near Flathead Lake, Marble asked for and received the commissioners' support in asking PPL Montana to increase the discharge rate at Kerr Dam.

However, the dam has already more than tripled its outflow in just the last week.

"We started increasing outflows on May 31," said PPL Resource Coordinator Lance Elias on Monday. "We were at 13,000 cubic feet per second and should hit 45,000 cfs when we finish today. Some flood control people are looking at maybe taking that a little higher."

The lake level is currently 2,892.94 feet. Full pool is generally defined as 2,893 - but from an operational standpoint, Elias said, the lake is already there.

"From now until September, we'll try to match outflow to inflow, or maybe go a little higher," he said.

That may be necessary in the short term, given that June is historically the wettest month of the year here. There's also a 30 to 60 percent chance of more precipitation every day this week.

"There's a deep low along the West Coast that's circulating moisture up here," said Mike Johnson with the National Weather Service in Missoula. "A very broad low pressure area will keep pinwheeling a series of waves through the area, similar to what happened Sunday evening."

Although only 0.01 inches of precipitation was recorded at Glacier Park International Airport, the lightning storm dumped up to a half-inch of rain in other parts of the valley, as well as downing trees and causing multiple power outages.

"This type of 'closed-low system' doesn't happen all that often," Johnson said. "We typically get one or two in late May or early June. They move very slowly, providing precipitation for 24 hours or more. The one last week took four days to push through."

The current low should weaken and move out of the area by Saturday, he said. After that, the Pacific Northwest will remain in the storm track, but they should be faster-moving systems that don't dump as much moisture.

Along the east side of Flathead Lake, emergency repairs are continuing on Montana 35, which was closed through the weekend due to flood-related damage.

Travel resumed Monday morning, with reduced speeds and one-lane traffic is some areas. Motorists were advised that an additional 30 to 45 minutes would be needed to travel from Blue Bay (milepost 14) to Polson.

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com