County polishing up its flood planning

Emergency management officials in Flathead County are meeting frequently to develop plans for rallying the community if the threat of flooding becomes imminent or if flooding occurs.

Scott Sampey, director of the Flathead County Office of Emergency Services, said recent meetings have focused on reviewing the county’s flood plan and figuring out “who will do what, so when things do start happening, we’re ready.”

While the county has bags available to be filled with sand, none have been filled. The bags are a one-time use product, Sampey said, so if they’re filled and not used, they can’t be stored.

“We’re being very careful about the sandbags,” he said. “No bags have yet been distributed.” The county has around 45,000 bags which can be used to protect county property or distributed to people to protect private property. Additional sandbags can be obtained from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Sampey’s office has made contact with several groups who have said they would provide volunteers to fill sandbags, if that scenario presents itself. So far, the United Way, Red Cross and Boy Scouts have agreed to line up volunteers, he said.

“We’re keeping an eye on everything,” Sampey said.

To date, no flooding has been reported in Flathead County, but Ashley Creek and Trumble Creek are both high, he said.

“We’ll monitor those kind of areas and then we’d decide at what point we might make sandbags available,” he said. “We would disperse [sandbags] in areas where people need them.”

Sandbags are not effective in controlling all kinds of flooding, Sampey said.

“Bags don’t help that many people. If you have a leaky basement, bags don’t help,” he said. Rather, he said, bags are effective in keeping water in streams or rivers.

Sampey and Cindy Mullaney, deputy director of the emergency services office, said they are working closely with the Sheriff’s Office and fire departments in the county to disseminate information to people about how to prepare for flooding and what to do in the event of flooding.

If necessary, the county would use several emergency notification services to warn and inform people about flooding, they said.

The county has an emergency alert system and a telephone notification system that would be put to use. Information would be given to media outlets to share with the public. “We would even go door-to-door if needed,” Mullaney said. County employees could drive through neighborhoods with bullhorns or public address systems announcing a flood.

A command center could be established where people could go or call for more information.

“We don’t want people to panic,” Sampey said. “We know people are concerned there will be flooding like there was in 1964, but there is nothing to suggest that will be the case this year.” A key difference, he said, is the significant rainfall in 1964 that fell on top of substantial snowpack. “We feel fairly sure that won’t be the case here,” he said. “The public needs to know that.

“Things are still going slowly. Snowpack is still accumulating and is still high,” Sampey said. All of the weather experts who he has spoken to have said if it floods in the Flathead this year, it will be nothing like the flood of 1964.

“We’re more likely to have minimal flooding in a lot of areas, not major flooding anywhere,” he said.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.