Milk River starts to drop at Harlem

The river still is above flood stage at Harlem — and north-central Montanans are warned that some areas will be water-logged for weeks — but the level of the Milk River dropped a fraction of an inch today at the measuring gauge near Harlem.

Much of this region has been under — and Blaine and Hill counties still are under — flood watches, advisories and warnings as melting near-record levels of snow filled streams and rivers, with Harlem coming close to breaking its record flooding of the Milk River, set in 1986 at 25.7 feet.

National Weather Service’s online water prediction service repots the Milk hit 24.46 feet about Sunday and was down to 24.37 feet at 8:30 this morning.

Water still likely is on the way from Lodge Creek that flows south out of Canada, however. The site reports Lodge Creek at the border hit 10.29 feet Saturday and has dropped since then. The creek still is in minor flood stage at 7.61 feet this morning, with the flood stage at 7 feet.

Blaine County reports on its Health Department Facebook page that some roads have been re-opened but others have been closed.

A post Monday evening reported that Highland Road is open, but a post a few hours earlier reported Snake Creek, Lonesome and Black Coulee roads were closed, while Yantic Road had been re-opened.

The post also asked that people displaced from their residence due to the flooding call the Blaine County Commission Office at 357-3250. The request was made to help with future emergency notifications and flood documentation.

The page also reminded people that they should never drive through flooded portions of roads and that children should be kept away from flooded areas.

The page also posted a notice from the city of Chinook telling residents that a slight discoloration of the water in the city was not leading to any warnings about the water.

Treatment of water in periods of high runoff requires additional chemicals that can lead to minerals in the water, making it discolored.

In Hill County, both the Milk River near Havre and Big Sandy Creek were reported to have dropped below flood stage.

The Milk near Havre, which peaked last week at 14.14 feet, just below moderate flood stage of 15 feet, was listed at 9:15 this morning at 7.44 feet, well-below the flood stage of 10 feet.

Big Sandy Creek was listed at 7.27 feet at 8:30 this morning, with the flood stage 7.5 feet.

That creek went more than 6 feet above flood stage when it peaked at 14.63 feet last week. Flood stage for Big Sandy Creek is 8.5 feet.

A post on the Hill County Health Department Facebook page Monday morning said the county Road and Bridge Department was assessing roads and would update the county with specific information as possible.

After going over the spillway starting last Tuesday, Fresno Reservoir this morning was listed as inches more than full, with the pool elevation listed as 2,575.3 feet as of Monday with the bay full at 2,570 feet.

The Bureau of Reclamation web pages on Fresno reports that Wednesday and Thursday the pool was 109 percent full at about 2576.5 feet, 162 percent of normal Wednesday.

After peaking at 6,599.21 cubic-feet-per-second last Tuesday, the site reports, the inflow into the reservoir had dropped to 1,235.07 CFS Monday. The discharge from the reservoir peaked Thursday at 3,511.85 cfs and had dropped by Monday to 2,249.96 cfs.