Cusick, Newport Prepare For Flood Runoff Expected To Swell Pend Oreille River

Volunteers and 50 convicts are sandbagging today around homes that face flooding next month when snow that is still falling in Montana swells the Pend Oreille River.

The effort to protect a dozen rural riverfront homes is being spearheaded by about 30 volunteers from Fire District 4, which serves the most flood-prone portion of the river, from Newport to Cusick.

Cusick residents also are busy reinforcing the dike that protects them from the river. Mayor Paul Haas said the dike has a weak section as well as some low spots that need to be raised.

Haas and his constituents will depend on the dike this year more than any time since 1948, when much of Cusick was flooded. The dike has an elevation of 2,052 feet, and officials say a near-record snow runoff could bring the river within 2 feet of the top of the dike.

If the river gets that high and the dike fails, the city of 244 will be flooded. Haas said Cusick streets are 3 to 5 feet below the top of the dike.

“If it gets to that point, there won’t be anybody there because we’ll have them all evacuated,” said JoAnn Boggs, Pend Oreille County emergency services director.

If the river gets to an elevation of 2,054 feet - which is considered unlikely but possible - the water system that serves Cusick and the nearby Ponderay Newsprint plant could be knocked out, forcing the mill to close.

In case water gets through the weak spot in the Cusick dike, Haas said city officials hope to hold it on three baseball fields by erecting a secondary wall of sandbags along a road that skirts the city.

“Our Plan B is to actually construct a dike right on the north side of Monumental Road there,” Haas said.

That would require an estimated 3,000 cubic yards of fill, but there is no money in the city budget to pay for it, Haas said. He said the city may qualify for construction assistance when the river flow through Albeni Falls Dam, near Newport, rises to 106,000 cubic feet per second from the current 70,000.

That could happen in time to get the work done before the flood hits, but Haas said he is negotiating for a lower threshold.

Although the Pend Oreille floodwaters are still in Montana, the Cusick area already is awash in local runoff. The same dike that keeps the Pend Oreille River out of Cusick traps water from the Calispel River, which used to flow into the Pend Oreille at the north edge of Cusick.

Six big pumps usually are able to lift the Calispel’s spring runoff over the top of the dike, but not this year. A spillgate in the dike couldn’t be opened until Wednesday because the Pend Oreille would have flowed back into the Calispel and made matters worse.

On Monday, the Pend Oreille County Public Utility District opened the gates on its Box Canyon Dam between Ione and Metaline. That allowed the Pend Oreille River level to drop enough to open the dike gate.

The gate may have to be closed again because of heavier-than-expected flows in the Pend Oreille. But the temporary reduction is helping efforts to shore up the dike, Haas said. , DataTimes