STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Better get the doors on the Ark. The Big One’s right around the bend.
After five weeks of nervous anticipation, forecasters say the Big Wood River in Hailey is expected to peak at 7.89 feet between 4 and 9 a.m. on Friday, June 2.
That would be higher than the 7.82-foot torrent of water that rushed down the valley on May 8. And it would be just below the peak of 7.93 in 1983.
Six feet constitutes flooding; eight feet, major flooding.
Forecasters have been ramping up the height of the expected peak for days. An initial peak of 7.5 feet is expected to occur between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. today—Thursday, June 4, before the big one on Friday, said Anne Jeffery, who is working with Carol Brown as a public information officer for the City of Hailey. It was 7.14 feet earlier in the morning.
Every emergency responder in the valley has been asked to be on alert on Friday, life jackets and other safety gear in hand.
“Everyone who’s dealing with the flood is just exhausted, as this flood has gone on so much longer than the flood of 2006,” said Brown. “Everyone just wants the temperature to go to 90 degrees and get it over with.”
Residents along Gimlet Lane south of Ketchum and the Della View neighborhoods have been dealing with sheet flooding since the ordeal began. And on Wednesday both neighborhoods moved back into high alert as the river rose a foot.
Forty homes continue to be under mandatory evacuation in the Della View area of Hailey. The evacuation was never lifted even when the water level lowered because authorities knew the river would peak again, said Brown.
Brown added she expects no more evacuations, as cooler weather is supposed to slow snow melt over the weekend. The river is expected to continue to lower gradually throughout the subsequent weeks.
The sound of sump pumps filled the air in the Della View neighborhood again on Wednesday as the water rose. And sightseers took to the bike path near Gimlet and Boxcar Bend where angry looking chocolate-colored water coursed around the bend, breaking into by whip cream-like peaks where logs and brush had piled up against the banks.
At least a hundred trees have fallen up and down the river corridor, estimated Brown and Jeffery.
“And we’re not just talking cottonwood. Aspen and other trees are falling too,” said Brown.
Employees at the Blaine County Recreation District have had to cut away a couple cottonwood tree that have fallen across the bike path near the railroad bridge south of Ketchum.
They’ve managed to deal with each within a half-hour of the trees falling, thanks to valley residents like Joan Scheingraber who have phoned the BCRD the moment they saw the trees topple, said Jim Keating, the BCRD’s executive director.
More worrisome is the damage flooding has caused to the Harriman Trail.
While snow melt has dug deep gorges as much as two feet deep in the Adams Gulch Road trail, big chunks of the Harriman Trail in the vicinity of Durrance Peak have gone downstream, completely erasing the trail in some areas. And river water is coursing along other parts of the trail causing the woods there to look like a bayou.
“The Boulder Mountain Tour race course is in the water,” said Keating. “I am encouraged, however, that the Forest Service is already starting to work on solutions.
On Wednesday, children at the Head Start program at the Community Campus spent the program’s last day bagging sandbags with sand from their sandbox. Volunteers have bagged 60,000 sandbags in Hailey.
Sandbags are available for anyone who wants them at the old Blaine Manor site in Hailey, said Brown. Sandbags are also available at the Ketchum Streets Department at 200 10th St.
Ed and Carmen Northen said they used a thousand sandbags, piling them three feet high around their two-story home, which has a 1,500-square foot print. They also have three sump pumps removing water from their crawl space. And they’ve moved a lot of their household items upstairs.
Ed Northen said they've found trout swimming in their yard.
“There’s still two feet of snow containing 10.5 inches of water in the snowpack at Galena,” Keating said referring to a weather station across the highway from Galena Lodge. Galena Peak has 33 inches of snow at the summit, containing 17 inches.”
Fortunately, the infrastructure in Hailey seems to be in good shape, with the exception of War Eagle Drive, which lost a lot of asphalt in the flood, said Brown.
Brown has responded to one visitor from out of town who wanted to know if she could drive through Hailey or if the town was cut off by floodwaters.
Meanwhile, Lucas and Leah Merklinghaus have created “Sand Bag Strong” T-Shirts to commemorate the flood. The T-shirts are being sold for $20 at Idaho Lumber and The Contemporary Cottage on Main Street in Hailey with all of the proceeds going to assist families affected by the flood.
Brown and Jeffery are organizing another community meeting for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 8, at the Community Campus.
Brown hopes to get someone to talk about the trees that are falling. And officials will begin offering information on recovery, as well.
There’s even talk of a community potluck picnic in Heagle Park, which is currently underwater, when the Big Wood River has cleared and things are returning to normal.
“It would be a great way to bring community back together,” said Jeffery.