Flood Watch

Snow fall in the mountains this winter has been setting records all season. A good snow pack feeds the waterways and means that we do not have to worry about running out of water to irrigate this summer. Unfortunately the snow fall has been so heavy that now we are concerned about flooding. We live less than a mile west of the Snake River and cross it daily. We are high and dry and separated from the river by I-15 and an empty catch pond/gravel pit. A greenbelt walkway circles the dry pond connecting to an eight mile greenbelt that boarders the river. This winter we walked the greenbelt daily, cataloging the rise and fall of the river, knowing that as the snow pack began to melt the river would rise.

The view from the east side of Teton Pass.

During my weekly deliveries to Jackson I drive along and cross the Snake River several times each trip. I follow the river and then cross it just north of Idaho Falls. I get a bird's eye view of the river as I drop into Conant Valley and get a second aerial view as I wind down into Swan Valley and cross the bridge. I skirt the river for a few miles and then do not see it again until crossing the bridge just outside of Jackson. These sightings take my breath away. The river is high, fast and beautifully dangerous--and the snow pack has not really begun to melt.

Two weeks ago we got a taste of what heavy snow melt really means when a mud slide closed Pine Creek Pass, my favorite leg of the trip. Luckily the mud was removed and the road passable within a few days but the damage to the creek and surrounding area is devastating. The willows in the wetlands surrounding the creek look like they were hacked by a giant weed eater. And the once crystalline creek is hugely swollen and silted. The following week a massive mud closed the Alpine road and weeks later is still not cleaned up. The road is heavily damaged and may remain closed for quite some time and the snow has still yet to melt.

The tan line through the snow is the road below Glory Bowl on the Teton Pass.

For weeks engineers have been pushing as much water as possible down the Snake River to empty the reservoir in preparation for the snow melt. All last week we watched as the river grew higher and higher, pushing up and out of its banks. As the skies clouded over and the rain fell the counties along the Snake prepared for flood.

This is a stretch of the greenbelt just east of us where we walked each day this winter. In mid May a barrier was constructed to prevent flooding. This photo was taken May 19.

This photo was taken six days later. The walkway has disappeared into the water. The trees in the middle of the water are on a high spot in the catch pond. The white object in the center of the photograph is a "You are Here" sign. This photo was taken from the road on the overpass that crosses I-15, our route into town. In 1997, under similar conditions, the water seeped beyond the catch pond, crossed the interstate, filled the median saturating the ground around the overpass and caused its collapse. At some point Saturday the southern end of the dike was partially dismantled to allow the water to flow back into the river, presumably to avoid another overpass collapse.

Areas all along the river have been sandbagged. This is a field flooded and a small bridge just about to be breached. As we drove through out the county we saw soggy fields and miles of sand bags and displaced birds and animals.

This is a field that has turned into an impromptu reservoir. The tiny white specks are gulls and the gray figure in the water is a Great Blue Heron. Its mate flew in just as I stowed the camera.