Flood threat lessens

After nearly two weeks of rising waters, the worst seems to be over in the region with flooding dropping in Hill and Blaine counties.

Blaine County Commissioner Vic Miller, public information officer for the county, said this morning that after rising water and debris damaged a dam in Blaine County, little downstream damage seems to have occurred, and the water seems to be dropping.

"Other than some low-level flooding, nothing really happened of any significance," he said.

Water has caused damage in Hill County, but the water levels also seem to be receding this morning, county officials report.

A late snowstorm followed by warm weather and rain caused some of the recent decades' highest levels of water in local streams, including Beaver Creek, Clear Creek in Blaine County And the Milk River.

The f looding inundated campgrounds on Beaver Creek Park and lowlands below the park, although the receding water has county officials hoping some campgrounds will be open by Memorial Day weekend.

"We're hoping to have good portion of the park open and have just some closed areas," park Superintendent Chad Edgar said this morning.

Edgar said the water level has dropped significantly, with the level flowing into Beaver Creek Dam 8 miles south of Havre down about 2 feet.

He will be spending the next day or two assessing damage on the park and starting work to repair the damage, primarily work on roads and bridges.

Hill County Disaster and E m e r g e n c y S e r v i c e s Coordinator Joe Parenteau said this morning that, while the levels going into Beaver Creek Reservoir are down, it will take some time before the level of the reservoir drops and the amount going out decreases.

Flooding between the dam and the Milk River likely will continue, with the rate of decrease — along with the work completed in the park — depending on the rainfall this week.

"We'll just take it as it comes," he said.

Edgar said several bridges have been damaged, including foot bridges at the Pagers and Hageners camp grounds washed off their bases, although they are still in the area. The bridge at the Eagles Campground is gone, he said.

"Amazingly, the bridge at Firemans (Camp Ground) is still there," Edgar said.

He said people can call the park office at 395-4565 to find out later in the week what will be available for camping.

In Blaine County, it was discovered Thursday afternoon that the checkboards, or falsework, on Paradise Dam south of Chinook had failed. Debris had built up behind the boards, which control the flow of water from the dam, and burst the boards.

Miller said the concrete structure of the dam itself sustained no damage, and the water and debris passed downstream without incident.

County, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and irrigation district personnel alerted landowners of possible damages and started observing the situation.

Blaine County officials also were able to alert both Sletten Construction and Dick Anderson Construction workers concerning current bridge work over the Milk River west of Harlem at the Hawley-Tangen Bridge and east of Fort Belknap at the Savoy Bridge.