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HomeMy Public PortalAboutIdaho History: Weather and Climate-- New Meadows, Riggins Pictures Fell Part of North Idaho Flood Story ANY OLD PORT IN A STORM , t OR FLOOD , j as Megeows resident escapes the high waters of Goos creek by ''Perching on top of his outhouse. The creek changed oye:night from a peaceful stream to a ragi. river, bringing early -morning risers in the area the first indication of ,flood conditions. (Photo by B Lorimer). P. E. OXLEY, state highway department, Boise, (in suit, which destroyed Falls creek and blocked traffic between left) helps an unidentified lady across the rock slide New Meadows and Riggins. (Photo by Bob Lorimer). Flume crosses Warm Springs Avenue Idaho Yesterdays Old Flume Battled Cottonwood Creek By ARTHUR A. HART Director, Idaho Historical Museum Newcomers to Boise may not be aware of one of her most unique structures from earlier days. Although many have passed the signs la- beled "Flume Street", prob- ably only a few have noticed its namesake, the old Cot- tonwood flume itself. Because Boise was laid out in the natural path of Cotton- wood Creek, the old stream continued to go its own way periodically without regard to man's temporary changes and "improvements." After years of bad floods which swept down Main Street in the heart of town, the city fathers finally decided to build a flume. Flumes were hardly a nov- elty in mining country, since most Boise Basin placer op- erations depended upon transporting water to where it was needed to wash gold particles out of gravel beds. The water was channeled along hillsides in ditches where possible, but often had to be controlled in wood- en plank flumes. Cottonwood flume was first envisioned as a stone - lined ditch which would car- ry the silt -laden waters of the creek on as direct a route as possible to Boise River. Statesman Editor Milton Kelly exploded when he heard this proposed by the City Council in 1881. He pointed out that the cost would be outrageous, that a stone flume would quickly silt up anyway, and that the First Street location pro- posed was too close to down- town and would inhibit the city's growth in that direc- tion. Kelly suggested that if a flume was • to be built it ought to be of wood in a V- shape. This, he said, would reduce the likelihood of silting up. Apparently the flume ac- tually built in 1881 was a compromise — part wood and part stone, since there are reports thereafter of re- pairs to the old flume on an annual basis which mention both materials. A great flood of May, 1892, broke the flume in several places, and in September of that year the council decided to build a "stone aqueduct" to take the place of the wooden one which was "about worn out." The con- tract was let to low -bidder D.P.B. Pride for $1.97 per running foot. He started hauling stone at once. In December the coun- cil decided to have Pride continue the project from Warm Springs Avenue to the river. In 1893 Mayor Peter Sonna ordered the flume to be "pointed up" with concrete to prevent leakage, and when an anxious City Coun- cil inspected it during a rag- ing flood in January, 1894, they were gratified to find it holding up well. Another flood of March that same year, however, did succeed in ripping out 200 yards south of Warm Springs Avenue. When the flume had filled with silt, the overflow undermined the sides and caused the break. Since there was a severe depression at that time, the city was able to get men to shovel out the sand for 20 cents an hour in the daytime and 25 cents an hour at n ight. An 1897 flood again broke the flue, causing the Warm Springs streetcars to go out of action. In 1899 the city was sued for damages when the flume again went out. The case went to the State Supreme Court which held the city liable. Mayor Alex- ander had the flume rebuilt in 1901, but in 1904 a March flood again ripped it out. Apparently there were still wooden sections, even then, for specific mention is made of "200 feet of woodwork" which gave way. Next time you pass down Warm Springs Avenue, no- tice the well -concreted banks of the old flume, even decorated with handsome iron fencing in some sec- tions, and recall the ram- pages of Cottonwood Creek which have kept it in the news for generations. By ARTHUR A. HART Director, Idaho Historical Museum. "The creek at the upper end of Main Street is running again as heretofore, and sluic- ing out the street. We have called attention to this matter several times, and we believe there has been several efforts to turn this watr off, but it don't stay turned off." "With these words, Editor Milton Kelly of The States- man in 1872 stated again the problem of having Main Street in the natural path of Cottonwood Creek. The problem has not been solved to this day, in all prob- ability, because man tends to think in terms of "normal" or average stream flow. As the recent disaster in South Dakota and the Cotton- wood floods of 1959 and 1965 show, Nature has a way of sending us the unusual and in- credible from time to time. Her cycles may, in fact,- be normal, but they are much. longer cycles than man's lim- ited memory. A Boise landmark, The Flume, was man's solution to the problem of Cottonwood Creek. It has been fairly effective, if not entirely reliable to with- stand all of the floods that the creek has sent down to chal- lenge it. The first reference to the Flume appears in The States- man on March 28, 1882, when it is reported that Mayor Pin- ney is having a wooden flume built straight from the mouth of Cottonwood canyon to the river. Boards that were used in earlier efforts to divert the floors from the city were being included in the new project, and aside from the fact that the flume leaked enough that the water washed the soil away around it, seemed satisfactory. From a further account a week later, it appears that there had been a flume in use over part of this course ear- lier, and that this was an en- largement and improvement. The city council minutes disclose that Thomas Black - more was paid $523.50 for the work. James A. Pinney was mayor again, ten years later, when the city made its next b i g improvement in the Flume. At this time it was noted that the timbers of the old structure were about worn out, and that a stone aqueduct would be built in its place. Plans were drawn and bids called for. On the morning of October 4, 1892, D. B. P. Pride was awarded the con- tract for $5,000 — a rate of $1.97 per foot. He began haul- ing stone that same day. This first contract took new stone Flume from the mouth of the canyon to Warm Springs Avenue. In December, the city authorized Pride to con- tinue the project on to the river at the same rate per foot. Unusually heavy floods in the spring of 1892 were un- doubtedly responsible for the decision to replace the old Flume, since it had cost the city a great deal of money and manpower to hold the old one together at the height of the runoff. In April, 1897, the Cotton- wood again had its way, this time washing out forty feet of the new stone walls above Warm Springs Avenue. The resulting flood damaged con- siderable private property and forced the streetcars to stop running. In 1901, the entire Flume had to be rebuilt again, this time during the adminis- tration of Mayor Moses Alex- ander. W. A. Goulder, a pioneer Boisean, was reminded on that occasion of the early his- tory of the Cottonwood floods and the famous Flume. He recalled that the Cotton- wood annually descended on the corner of Sixth and Main, and that the Legislature often met in those days in the old wooden Turn Verein Hall. "We remember," he wrote, "that this entire body of as- sembled wisdom narrowly es- caped being drowned while crossing the raging flood in a Noah's ark of an old flatboat in getting to -heir places of business. "The y all escaped, of course, because they had been reserved for a different and more distressing fate than drowning." Idaho Yesterdays Flume Eases Problem Of Cottonwood Floods Boise streets sandbagged when Cottonwood Creek flooded in 1965 a o e/0 te- 0'Q52e' / to 716 / c?4-2 Despite rains, runoff, snowpack still above average The Little Salmon River north of New Meadows looked more like a lake last Friday afternoon. US Hwy 95 runs diagonally south to north across the photograph. Record precip leaves reservoirs full and water with no where to go It was a case of too much water and no where for it to go that led to last week's problems in central and southwest Idaho. Rick Wells, a hydrologist with the Bureau of Reclamation, said Monday that even with the heavy snow followed by rain that occurred last week, he expects the end of the month snowpacks in Central Idaho to be 170 to 180 percent of nor- mal. Flows in the Payette River downstream started increas- ing dramatically Dec. 31 after several days of snow and rain. At that point, he said the releases from Cascade and Deadwood reservoirs were cut back to their minimum levels 200 and 50 cubic feet per second (cfs), respectively. On Jan. 1 and 2, he said the flows into Cascade Reservoir averaged about 11,250 cfs, but the flows held down to min- imum levels so as to not add to the already high natural flows occurring in the river downstream. At Black Canyon Dam, he said the estimated peak flow there was 33,700 cfs, estimated because it exceeded the Bureau's rating table there. He said it could be refined, but that he doesn't expect it to be refined downward at all. All that water flowing into Cascade Reservoir filled it to within two feet of full pool by the end of the weekend. On Tuesday, the amount of water being released from Cascade Dam was increased to 2,450 cfs, and Wells said it could be increased to between 3,000 and 4,000 cfs. He said those releases will be maintained whenever possible into the spying because of concerns that there isn't enough storage space in the reservoir to accommodate the volume of water expect- ed with the spring snowmelt. "It's too full for the date and the snowpack conditions," he said. He said they'd like to have another 100,000 acre- feet of storage space. With the reservoir about 2 feet below full pool, he said that translates to about 55,000 acre-feet of water short of being full. An acre foot of water is the amount it takes to cover one acre of land to a depth of one foot. For the month of December, Wells said the Bureau mea- surA f ehiTy 1 c inches of precipifati% f itlat side. Bob Zach, a Smiths Ferry resident who has monitored precipitation there the past five years, said he measured 16.49 inches of precipitation during December, almost 10 inches more than any December back to 1991 when he began col- lecting data. "There was no where for all that water to go," he said oc.ot(2 o ccute. ra-Y- ot ‘.0 Airport keeps people moving out and supplies coming in For at least one day last week, McCall airport busiest in state For a couple of days late last week, the McCall and Cascade airports were likely among the busiest in the state. For McCall, that day would have been Friday when the airport logged about 700 flight operations — either the takeoff or landing of an aircraft. On a normal day, Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controller Mark Smith of Boise said that the Boise Airport logs from 350 to 500 flight oper- ations. Smith and two other FAA controllers flew into the McCall Airport Saturday morning to bring some formal order to the situation that had developed as stranded travelers swamped area charter flying ser- vices with requests to be flown out of Long Valley after mudslides and floods closed all ground routes out. Not that things were out of control. McCall Airport Manager and Fire Chief Dale Points said that pilots did a great job of keeping things in order during the first two days of what can only be described as a "mini -Berlin Airlift." All told, beginning at about 11 a.m. Thursday and ending Saturday evening, when ground routes out of Valley and Adams counties had been cleared, the McCall Airport recorded about 1,700 flight operations, accord- ing to Points. "Initially, there was consider- able confusion," Points said. "We had a lot of people not used to fly- , ing in here, they weren't familiar with our local rules and regula- tions." That was compounded by the fact that there was a varied mix- ture of aircraft types using the air- port, he said, from single engine Cessnas to twin -engine prop air- craft to jets ancknelicopters. This crowded waiting area at McCall Alr Taxi became a famil- iar sight last week as vacationers waited for a flight out of the area. i-8-/99q And while organization emerged from the initial and short-lived chaos, Points said there were a lot of lessons learned frog .the expe- rience. He said he didn't:antici- pate the parking problems that would develop for both aircraft and automobiles. But he said city citws,-aided by local contractors who just jumped in to help, got more space cleared. While the total number of peo- ple who flew out of McCall isn't known, the two charter operations there — McCall Air Taxi and' Pioneer Aviation flew nearly 7d6 people out, mostly to the Treasure Valley. Return flights carried sup- plies and local residents trying to retum from holiday vacations else- where. Arnold Aviation at Cascade flew slightly more than 200 peo- ple out of the Cascade Airport, and lots of supplies in. Arnold had two of its own airplanes flying, but the company also brought two larger, twin -engine Islander air- planes in from Salmon to help move people out and people and supplies in. Working closely with Arnold was Eagle Air of Donnelly, which used its Islander to move its own passengers and also help Arnold reduce its list. And most of the air charter oper- ators offered flights out at rates less than they would normally charge. Kim Calvin at Pioneer said they would continue to offer their $50 rate, below their usual $60 rate, to those who have to fly back from Boise to pick up vehicles left at the airport. In addition, Arnold contracted with the U.S. Postal Service to fly mail into the isolated areas of cen- tral Idaho. Points said that one of the things that made everything work at the McCall Airport were the many volunteers who just pitched in, helping park airplanes in an orga- nized manner, keeping passengers moving to planes they needed to get to, and moving cargo from incoming flights into hangars and getting it out of the way. "The loads of supplies coming in on the back flights was phe- nomenal," he said. "I think our hats should be off to those people Pa-5A- 3 °I - z3 - 9 who got that done." Despite some close calls, he said there were no incidents at the airport despite the extraordinari- ly heavy traffic. He also said he will meet today with the airport advisory com- mittee to go over what can be done to prepare for such situations should they ever develop in the future. But, Points also said there's not much. "You can't economically plow the entire airport just on the chance that all the roads close again," he said. But he said they may watch for similar weather conditions in the future, to perhaps give them a little more heads -up that some- thing might develop. Complicating things Thursday was the fact that the runway lights stopped operat- ing. It took an electrician more than a day to get everything back into working order. "We seemed to make every- thing work even though it seemed like there was no way it would," he said. "All in all, we learned some things and I feel confident we'll do a better job the next time," he said. "And I have nothing but absolute praise for our (charter operations) and volunteers who stepped forward to help bring this thing to a successful conclusion." Steven Young, of Boise, said he was glad to be going home Saturday afternoon when he got a seat on one of the last planes headed for Boise at Arnold Aviation. The flight was one of many that were part of the great Valley County Airlift that got hundreds of stranded vacationers out and much -need- ed supplies in after floods and mudslides cutoff road access to much of central Idaho. Young said he had missed two days of school during the stranding, but that he wasn't all that bored while visiting his grandparents Hugh and Jessie Somerton of Donnelly for the holidays. Garbage pickups suspended until roads open Garbage pickups around Valley County have ground to a halt and won't resume until a way out is found for Lakeshore Disposal's tractor -trailer rigs hauling solid waste to Canyon County's land- fill, according to Lakeshore owner Tony Totorica. He said Lakeshore hasn't been able to haul out of the coun- ty since Dec. 31. But there was capacity at the county transfer station and in some of the trailers to allow them to continue col- lecting all last week. However, he said they've got 110 tons of garbage and no place to put it, so pickups are suspended until they can resume haul- ing out of the county. Should Idaho Highway 55 open today, he said normal pick- ups in Cascade, both commercial and residential, would resume Thursday. But if not, residential pickups won't resume until next Monday at the soonest. "It's all contingent on the opening of Highway 55," he said. "It's caused a lot of havoc." In the meantime, all pickups, commercial and residential, have been suspended, he said. Area HAM radio operators pitch in during crisis Members of the Central Idaho Amateur Radio Club did their part last week in helping those trapped in Valley and Adams counties get word out to friends and relatives. When the telephones went dead at about 4:30 p.m. New Year's Day, Jeremy Alexander, Jim Henderson and Kermit Peterson, along with other members of the club, answered the call to provide a conduit for messages from stranded travelers. Alexander, who is a broadcast engineer, said he was con- tacted by David Eaton of KMCL-FM about their capabili- ties, and said he told Eaton that they had more communi- cations capability among the club's members than all other agencies combined. "We were the ones to do the job," he said. Before telephone service was restored about seven hours later, hundreds of messages were transmitted by Alexander, Henderson and Peterson to HAM operators in the Treasure Valley. Alexander handled 313 himself, he said. While most of the traffic was fairly routine, letting rela- tives and friends know they were okay and were simply stranded because of the road closures, Alexander said there were some higher priority messages transmitted, having to do with cancelling surgeries, arranging for pet care, arrang- ing for substitute teachers, and letting parents know that - children traveling alone and stranded in Long Valley were okay. Alexander said the response by the HAMS again prove how valuable the amateur radio operators can be in times of natural disasters. All of the messages got through and were confirmed, and calls were made back to stranded folks in Valley County that their messages had been received. Cental Idaho cut off from world by floods, mud slides, washouts Other than not being able to get from here to just about any- where outside of Valley or parts of Adams County, Long Valley residents and visitors suffered lit- tle in last week's natural resources disaster. Valley and Adams counties, along with dozens of others around the west, have been declared dis- aster areas by everyone on up to President Bill Clinton, thereby making the counties eligible for federal assistance. But, the reality is, other than a few days where the only way in or out was by aircraft, we got off easy when compared to those downstream who've lost every- thing to floods. We didn't get off entirely with- out property loss or damage, how- ever, as Round Valley residents George and Janice Girard lost part of their garage and their snow- plowing pickup to a mudslide that swept down on their Timber Rim Drive home. The Cascade Senior Center will hold a benefit bingo game for them on Jan. 17, and a spaghetti Teed on Jan. 18, accord- ing to center director Mary Samuelson. Also, a house on the Leslie Ranch just south of Cascade Reservoir suffered some flooding by the large amount of runoff spilling down mountains and into the Cascade Reservoir drainage. And there was no shortage of flood- ed basements, backed up sewers and septic systems throughout the lower lying areas of Valley County as the rain fell and the snow melt- ed. And, outside of the tragic air- plane crash that took the lives of four Boise residents and one from Above: This US 95 bridge washout south of Biggins is proving to be one of the more difficult repair items on ITD's punch list. Below: This washout on the Little Salmon near Pinehurst will also take some fixing before traffic will aeain flow smoothly. Portland, there were few incidents during three days of the heaviest airport traf- fic the McCall and Cascade airports have ever seen. Stranded vacationers dealt with their unexpected stay with few problems. Helen Eimers, manager of McCall's Best Western, said that people were basically "very, very patient. Most were very accepting. The longer they stayed the better they were. "In fact, it was just like a family in the end," she said. As did other motels and hotels in the area, Best Western reduced its rates to make it easier on those stranded. She said the pool and hot tub at the motel were in constant use, and there were card games going in the lobby during the day. "We had trouble keeping everyone in clean towels, but we kept up with it," she said. "We kind of did whatever we could to accommodate them," she said. "Overall, the town really rallied over this whole thing," she said. Across the street at The Woodsman, Betty Woods said things were much the same, they took in people and did their best to take care of them, even if they had run out of money. McCall Police Chief Ed Parker said there were no major incidents, although a couple of confrontations developed in gas lines and grocery lines as folks tried to get that last bit of gas or last carton of eggs. "There was lots of anxiety in the air, people were frustrated and short-tem- pered," he said. But he attributed that more to people not knowing what was going on. "Overall people made the most of it," he said. Most local residents had good stocks of food and many of them opened their homes to visitors. "In a crisis like that, the community pulls together, people pull together and deal with it," he said. Woods summed the entire deal up this way: 'fo �1Palc vnn temnns_ make lemonade." 4.4 v:,o �� l/2,e&er a ocu o c ezte. �a S Travelers slowly making their way out This line of about 4 dozen vehicles was set to head south over the High Valley Road Saturday morn- ing. Colder temperatures, and round-the-clock work by state and county road crews opened some routes out of Idaho's central moun- tains for those trapped by floods and mudslides last week that closed off access to the region. In addition, the renewal of traffic will allow much -needed sup- plies of milk, bread, eggs and gasoline to be brought back into the area. As of Monday, Idaho Transportation Department officials said three land routes had been cleared out of the area. However, those routes are very restricted, all involving one-way traffic and pilot cars, and the hours are restricted in most cases. Making for a four-hour drive to Boise is the route out via the High Valley Road to Ola and Sweet and down to Idaho Highway 52 between Horseshoe Bend and Emmett. Valley County road crews plowed open about 9 miles of the cen- tral part of that road late last week and opened it to one-way pilot- ed traffic Saturday evening. It is normally kept open part -way from both directions, but the center is allowed to snow shut each winter. However, that road is restricted to four-wheel drive vehicles only or two -wheel drive vehicles with tire chains. Motorhomes or vehi- cles towing trailers are not permitted on the road. According to Valley County,>officials, it takes an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half to -;:cover the distance from Smiths Ferry to Ola. That makes for a wait of a couple of hours between trips. Vehicles can get out via that road 24 hours a day. The High Valley Road has a snow floor and a 6 percent grade. For north Valley County residents who want to go out via U.S. Highway 95, they should travel north to New Meadows and south on U.S. 95 to the Glendale/Starkey/Fruitvale Road north of Council. From there, pilot cars are leading vehicles over the 10-mile dirt road 24-hours a day. Motorists should expect considerable delays. From the Glendale/Starkey/Fruitvale Road, travelers will return to U.S. 95 and can travel on to Weiser. At Weiser, motorists should take Oregon State Highway 201 to pick up Interstate 84. No commercial vehicles are permitted on that route. Those needing to travel north can, amazingly enough, do so, but also with some tight restrictions. U.S. 95, which was severely damaged in a number of locations by washouts and mudslides and damaged bridges, is open from 6 to 10 a.m. and 6 to 10 p.m. daily. That schedule will be in place until road repairs are completed. Vehicles are being led by pilot cars for about 10 miles over a rough road. Again, no commercial vehicles are allowed. Some of the damaged areas include a 300-foot washout about 18 miles north of New Meadows, a 500-foot washout about 19 miles north of New Meadows, and a 700-foot washout at Pinehurst. Also, the north span of a bridge south of Riggins has fallen into the Little Salmon River. However, traffic is being detoured over an old bridge, but that is limited to one-way traffic. ITD officials estimate that repairs to the bridge will take about two more weeks. ITD crews and contractors are expecting to clear enough of 100,000 cubic yard slide at Lower Banks by today or tomorrow to allow one lane of traffic through that affected area. (iai-ee-'7 a t o o c a-t . a 6 o� No power, no skiin' Spirits remained high and the skiing great at Brundage Mountain during last week's road closures that stranded vacationers in McCall. On Sunday, the power at the ski area went out, and Brundage Mountain SnowCat crews used one of their cats to get Idaho Power Company crews out into the woods to repair the damage, caused by trees falling on the power line that feeds the ski resort. They finally restored power that afternoon, but the day was mostly a washout for skiers. But the partnership wasn't finished either. Above, Idaho Power crewmembers board the SnowCat again as they head out to check on the condition of the main feed- er line to the area from Brownlee Dam. With repair crews taxed to the limit work- ing around the region, Brundage Spokesperson Mary Naylor said they had no way to get out to fix that main line. So at about 5 p.m. that evening they loaded onto the cat to head to the west of Rock Flat to check that main transmission line. Naylor said skier visits over the week were measured in hundreds instead of the usual 1,500 to 2,000 a day during a typical holiday ski day. But those who did show up to ski didn't have a shortage of snow to ski on as the mountain had more than 125 inches of white stuff on the top. Those who've been up to ski have also had a chance to try out the new snack place on Main Street. Brundage has erect- ed a yurt about half -way down the run that serves up snacks and beverages to ski - in, ski -out skiers.