West Glacier first to flood

The Daily Inter Lake

Area rivers topped flood stage on Monday, sending water into low-lying areas of West Glacier and Polebridge.

At West Glacier, the Middle Fork of the Flathead River rose almost three feet from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon and was more than a foot above the river's 10-foot flood stage Monday afternoon.

Three holes of Glacier View Golf Club - the third, fourth and 14th - were closed by high water, but that failed to discourage about 20 golfers from using the course by midday, said Greg McDonald, who works in the pro shop and owns a home on River Bend Drive - which was also under water.

River Bend Drive was closed Monday afternoon by the Flathead County Road and Bridge Department. About 200 yards of the residential street was under about 10 inches of water, according to the Flathead County Sheriff's Office.

The flood waters affected about 10 homes in the West Glacier area. Four of those homes, all on River Bend Drive, had water lapping up nearly to their foundations.

"There are some things you can control, but Mother Nature isn't one of them," said Robin Bailey, who has lived with her husband, John, on River Bend Drive for about five years.

The Baileys spent Monday moving everything out of their garage, which is the lowest portion of their house, and putting their furniture on stilts. As of Monday evening, no water had made its way into the house or garage, said Bailey.

Bailey began tracking the flooding when she woke up at 6 a.m. Monday, the day after returning from a trip to Europe.

"I looked out this morning and saw the river was all over the front yard," she said. "I just had a very large lake in my front yard."

A former owner of the Bailey's home, Fred Thompson, said the water was just a little higher - about 4 inches - during the flood of 1996.

Next door to the Baileys, Diana and Quinn Lamers watched as water filled their front yard and then began to creep into their garages, which occupy the entire first floor of their home. With the help of friends and neighbors, the Lamers used sandbags and plastic sheeting to curb the water's progress and then pumped the water behind the barrier out.

Residences on River Bend Drive weren't evacuated, but posse members were posted to keep non-homeowners out of the way.

The Middle Fork, after reaching a level of 11.23 feet, was dropping slightly late Monday. Residents said that the level of water on the River Bend Drive fell to about 4 inches. However, forecasts called for the Middle Fork to crest at 12.14 feet this morning.

The Middle Fork and other area rivers have been pushed to flood levels by warm weather melting an above-average mountain snowpack. As the weather cools this week, river levels are expected to gradually decline.

In Polebridge, the North Fork of the Flathead River rose gradually over the last few days, finally swamping the lawn at the North Fork Hostel on Sunday night.

"I have some water in my yard as of this morning," said hostel owner Oliver Meister, who has been watching the National Weather Service online river forecasting closely. "Believe me, I've been looking at that for the last five days."

The river gauge at Polebridge showed flows reaching 11.25 feet Monday, just below the river's 12-foot flood stage. But the North Fork was forecasted to crest just above flood stage by this morning.

Meister said he was prepared to sandbag his house to keep water out of his kitchen.

The hostel has the lowest-lying structures in the Polebridge area, and Meister speculated that the river would have to exceed its forecasted peak by quite a bit to cause problems for neighboring homes.

The main Flathead River level surpassed its 14-foot flood stage on Monday afternoon. It was expected to rise to 15.05 feet this morning.

On Monday morning, the river was about two feet away from overflowing the bank at Spruce Park On the River RV Park and Campground in Evergreen.

Spruce Park owner Geri Malberg kept close tabs on the rising river for the past few days, frequently consulting with her father, who has spent decades watching the Flathead River, said Dee Halverson, a host at the campground.

The owner constantly checked river forecasts on the Web and felt comfortable with what she saw.

"It all seemed to make her feel better," Halverson said.

The campground kept sheets of the computer forecasts on the office's front counter, where guests would look them over.

"It kept changing. Predicting all this is hard," Halverson said.

Phil and Kelly Nash of Calgary spent the weekend at Spruce Park.

They watched the river's surface rise two or three feet during the weekend, but were not worried.

"It wasn't coming up too fast," Phil Nash said.

But with a heavy rain, all bets are off, said Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan, noting that the ground in much of the Evergreen area is saturated and the water table has risen to within inches of the surface.

"We're continuing to monitor, at this point," Meehan said, adding that Flathead County is still under a flood watch. "But I think we're going to be OK, myself."

A corollary danger to flooding is the amount of debris caught up in the rivers' increasingly swift currents, said Meehan.

"There's a lot of debris in the water, and that's one of our concerns," he said in regard to rafters and other people recreating on the rivers.

On Saturday, an observation flight over area rivers revealed several log jams and other obstacles, including a large cottonwood tree ready to tumble into the Stillwater River near Wedgewood Lane and River Road and a buildup of debris near where U.S. 93 crosses the Stillwater River north of West Reserve Drive.

IN GLACIER NATIONAL Park, the Many Glacier Road was closed Monday morning after it was obstructed by debris from a high-flowing creek, but the road was reopened within hours, according to Chief Ranger Mark Faust.

Faust said park road crews have been busy maintaining culverts along Going-to-the-Sun Road, ensuring that the runoff was reaching Upper McDonald Creek.

That runoff has been substantial, with Lower McDonald Creek nearly flowing over the Quarter Circle Bridge by Monday afternoon.

The Flathead National Forest had staffers patrolling streams and forest roads over the weekend, particularly in the 30,000-acre area burned by last summer's Brush Creek Fire west of Whitefish.

Forest officials expected some potential flooding problems in the burned area, but there have been none so far, public information officer Denise Germann said Monday afternoon.

"We're still out monitoring … and they are seeing creeks and streams that are higher than they've been for years, but there have been no issues," Germann said. "Hopefully that will continue."

Hungry Horse Reservoir rose more than 4 feet from Friday through Sunday as the dam held back runoff from the South Fork of the Flathead River.

On Sunday, for example, water was flowing into the reservoir at the rate of 28,841 cubic feet per second, but only 4,396 cubic feet per second were being released downstream.

The downstream portion of the South Fork below Hungry Horse Dam flows into the main Flathead River.

Reporters Nicholas Ledden, Jim Mann, John Stang and Karen Nichols contributed to this story.