River level drop is good news, but officials warn it won’t last forever
By Eric Valentine
First it was the avalanches, now it’s the floods. And although this past week’s predicted 5.2-foot “water stage elevation”—the technical way of saying river height—never happened, area officials are quick to point out the Big Wood River could still bring big flooding in May and into June.
“We’re still there. Everybody should still be on guard,” said Brian Yeager, Hailey’s city engineer and public works director.
According to Yeager, the river height over the past week was between 4.3 and 4.7 feet. That’s a significant drop from the water levels that flooded the Draper Preserve and surrounding neighborhood over Easter weekend. The sigh of relief, however, could be short-lived as the National Weather Service is predicting that by May 6 the river could hit flood level—5 feet high.
“There’s about a 20 percent chance of that happening, but in the beginning of June that goes up to 90 percent,” Yeager explained.
Specific areas where residents need to be especially vigilant are:
In Bellevue: Riverview Drive
In Hailey: Cedar Street, War Eagle Drive and Della Vista Drive in the Della View subdivision
In Ketchum: Wood River Drive and the Gimlet subdivision
The most memorable recent local flooding took place in the spring of 2017, which was preceded by a large-snowfall winter much like February this year. Numerous homes in Hailey that year were under emergency evacuation.
Residents in and around floodplains have been encouraged by area officials for weeks to prepare in numerous ways, from sandbag usage to signing up for the Code Red alert system at public.codered.com. In addition, river level predictions can be viewed online as well on the National Weather Service website at water.weather.gov, where you can search for your specific area.