Security Sought For Flood Evacuees Pend Oreille County Wants State Help

Pend Oreille County officials today will ask visiting state officials to provide guards for flooded, evacuated residential areas.

Volunteers from the sheriff’s reserves, mounted posse and search-and-rescue squads are weary from guarding two subdivisions continuously for two days, County Commissioner Joel Jacobsen said.

He and other county leaders will seek money as well as manpower when they meet today with a delegation from the state Emergency Management Department. But guards are the most pressing need.

“The National Guard or military police, just whatever they can provide us to help man these secured areas is what we’ll ask them for,” said county Emergency Services Director JoAnn Boggs.

In other flood developments, Boggs said a dike broke Wednesday near the Open Skies subdivision on the east side of the river, about 10 miles north of Newport. Only fields were flooded, though.

Jacobsen said county officials today will consider banning all but emergency watercraft from the Pend Oreille. Commissioners already have ordered boaters not to create wakes, but Jacobsen said some personal watercraft operators have paid no attention.

It’s a “good question” whether another order would get their attention, he admitted. But Boggs said the river is so high now that even small unintentional wakes can wash over sandbags and cause property damage.

Scores of homes had been flooded by Wednesday as the river rose 7 inches from Tuesday. The river elevation was 2,048.2 feet at Cusick, higher than some streets but four feet below the top of the dike that underwent emergency repairs Monday.

Flooding that had been limited mostly to basements was reaching the main floors of some homes, Boggs said.

She said the Red Cross surveyed the river south of Usk on Wednesday and found 30 to 50 houses that appeared to have been flooded. The rest of the river will be surveyed today.

Flood damage was extending farther north but had not affected movie crews filming “The Postman” at the Pend Oreille Mine near Metaline Falls.

Spokesman David Fulton said floodwater is close to some of the 200-member crew’s rented homes, but all - including actor-director Kevin Costner’s - were still dry Wednesday But riverfront parks in nearby Metaline and Ione were awash. So were the workers who are continuing to build a movie set on the face of Boundary Dam even though both side-mounted spill gates have been wide open.

Officials now believe the river flow may peak at 132,000 cubic feet per second at Albeni Falls Dam near Newport on Friday or Saturday.

The elevation may increase 6 more inches, Boggs said.

, DataTimes