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RUPERT — Minidoka County commissioners put a preliminary dollar amount Monday on the expected county expenses from the flood.
Minidoka County School District closed schools Monday because of road conditions, and Acequia Elementary School will likely be closed for several days.
Sixteen Idaho counties out of the 44 have declared emergencies, Times-News reported.
Mini-Cassia officials are monitoring the floodwaters, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to arrive in Cassia County Tuesday to assess the Lower Goose Creek Reservoir and dam at Oakley.
Minidoka County
“I don’t think we’ve seen the worst of it yet,” said Kim Vega, Minidoka County emergency management coordinator.
Minidoka County commissioners added the county’s $50,000 expected expenses to its emergency declaration Monday, an amount that can be amended as needed. The costs are direct expenses to the county, like buying sandbags. Other costs like losses to business or individuals along with infrastructure damage are not yet known.
Minidoka County Sheriff Eric Snarr said the only main arteries north of Meridian Road still open are 400 West Road and 600 West Road.
“We may lose those roads this week as the snow continues to melt,” Snarr said.
“Just because you drove a road yesterday doesn’t mean it’s there today.” -Eric Snarr, Minidoka County Sheriff
Many roads in the county remain underwater, and others have been washed out or are impassable from damage.
Some roads still have up to 4 feet of water over them, Snarr said. The county did not have enough signs to mark all of the closed roads.
If motorists go around a road-closed barricade and they get stuck they will be issued a citation, Snarr said.
“You are also taking away resources that could be used somewhere else and endangering not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors and emergency personnel who rescue you,” he said. “Just because you drove a road yesterday doesn’t mean it’s there today.”
Snarr said the sheriff’s office has received calls about contaminated wells, and if there is standing water around a well it must be tested before it is used.
“We have homes that are flooded with 5-feet of water in the basements and the living rooms are flooded,” he said.
Gary W. Davis, with the Idaho Office of Emergency Management, told the Minidoka County commissioners that the flooding in the county is the result of a combination of precipitation, temperature and new farming practices.
New irrigation techniques have eliminated many ditches that used to run alongside roads that helped channel some of the melting snow away from the farms.
Officials at Lake Walcott State Park are asking people to stay off the lake ice, which has standing water on it.
Cassia County
Officials continued to assess water accumulation in the Lower Goose Creek Reservoir in Oakley Monday, after a canal flood channel was opened last week to release some of the water.
The county also has an emergency operations center at the Oakley Fire Department and a flood information hotline can be reached at 208-878-7104.
Cassia County Sheriff Jay Heward said the amount of water coming into the reservoir from Birch Creek decreased over the weekend.
“There is still quite a bit of capacity there,” Undersheriff George Warrell said. “At this rate if it stays cool the reservoir will fill in 62 days.”
The water level in the reservoir went down considerably Monday morning to afternoon.
Warrell said the decrease is because of water drawn out through the flood channel and the fact that the temperature was in the single digits in the Goose Creek area this morning, which slowed the melting snow.
The water in the flood channel had not yet reached 1100 S., he said.
Birch Creek Road and 1600 South and 1700 South between 600 West and the mountain road are closed because the flood channel breaches the roadways.
There are a couple of roads in the Malta-Almo area that remain underwater and other county roads that are closed because of damage.
A bridge in the Goose Creek area washed out and has stranded a herd of cattle, Warrell said, but the animals are being fed.
Stream flows in Malta, Almo, Elba and Albion have all gone down and the floodwater has receded west of Burley, he said.
