County busts up logjam
<p>Logs removed from a logjam in the Flathead River north of the Montana 35 bridge were placed on an island in the middle of the river.</p>
<p>Flathead County Road and Bridge and Flathead County Sheriff’s Department workers attach cables to debris in a logjam Tuesday afternoon in the Flathead River north of the Montana 35 bridge.</p>
After snagging dozens of people this month, a logjam on the Flathead River just north of the Montana 35 bridge caused enough trouble for Flathead County officials to begin removing it Tuesday.
“It’s going fairly well,” Sheriff Chuck Curry said from a boat being used to assist in the operation. “As you can imagine, it’s a fair amount of work, but we’re having success.”
Curry said an excavator from the county Road Department was being used to pull logs from the jam with cables and chokers that were hooked up by people on the logjam.
“We can stand on the logjam. It’s like a little island,” Curry said, adding that he believes the work can be finished in one day, maybe two.
Curry said he approached the county commissioners and the planning department for permission to move the jam.
“We’ve had seven emergency responses to this logjam in the last two weeks,” he said. “It’s strictly being done for public safety concerns. You can get around it, but the problem is there’s been a lot of unprepared people this year. The concern is that someone could get stuck under this and drown.”
Curry said rather than just breaking apart the logjam and letting logs drift downstream, possibly to become part of another logjam, the logs are being pulled to the east riverbank. Eventually they will be removed.
The logjam — upstream of an island just north of the Spruce Park on the River Campground and the Montana 35 bridge — was estimated to be 50 feet long and 15 feet thick.
At one point the logjam was believed to contain a kayak and at least two rafts.
Among the incidents that have occurred at the logjam this month:
q On July 2, a group of 10 river floaters were rescued after being stranded after dark at the logjam. The floaters, who originally could not be located, eventually were found by the ALERT helicopter with the aid of night-vision technology..
They were stranded after their inflatable raft and inner tubes capsized and were swept downstream of the logjam. The boaters were between the ages of 17 and 20 and suffered only minor bumps and bruises.
— On July 12, a raft was sucked underneath the logs. The occupants were able to escape but the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office boat had to take them to shore.
— On July 14, four floaters were stranded on the logjam. A couple of emergency responders swam to the logjam. Later, search and rescue and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks arrived with a rescue boat.
— On Saturday night, two people on inner tubes were separated from their friends when they got hung up on the logjam. They managed to make it off the logjam and rejoin their companions floating downstream on a large circular raft.
— On Sunday night, Evergreen Fire Rescue was called again to perform a water rescue at the logjam.