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Friday, June 11, 2010
025 (local version) - Raging stream becomes insatiable monster
One of the main reasons we moved to Wyoming 40 years ago was the Popo Agie River.
This picturesque mountain stream is one of those rivers that you see pictured on calendars. That image would whet the appetite for a young Midwesterner who yearned to get to the mountains.
But our friendly little stream has turned into quite the angry foe over the past two weeks.
Our family always thought we were lucky to live along this river. Its bank was about 600 feet from us two weeks ago. Today, it is about 450 feet from us.
We also have Big Dickinson Creek running through our back yard. Yes, that is the creek that flooded in 1963 causing most of that flood’s damage in Lander.
Our personal flooding woes started Friday night, June 4 when water breached some riverbanks at a rural residence upriver from us. The storm of water that gushed through our property totally swamped the creek bed and ended up causing some damage and water in basements downstream from us.
Local firemen and officials were diligent in trying to figure out where the water was coming from and getting it stopped. State Sen. Cale Case, who is also president of the Lander Ditch Association, did yeoman work in getting a dike built to stop the flow.
After that incident, the town seemed safe until Monday night/Tuesday morning June 7-8 when a surge knocked out Mortimore Lane Bridge, washed out about two acres of my land, sucked a log cabin off the property downstream and pretty much scoured the riverbed.
Beautiful private homes along the river belonging to Carl and Anne Huhnke and Chuck and Cathy Guschewsky were severely threatened and, at times, looked like they were going to washed away.
Then the weather cooled down and all we heard about was how much wet snow was falling up in the mountains, which would add even more water to the flow.
City, County, Wydot crews plus local contractors like Alexander Excavation, Artery Construction and others worked amazing numbers of hours trying to save homes and shore up dikes and levees that were being washed away by the raging river.
At City Park, the river took on a totally new character. It appears to now be almost 100 yards wide in some places. Amazing.
I now know more about heavy construction than ever. Watching huge machines dump gigantic boulders onto the bank of the levee only to see the river suck the rocks away is awesome. Sort of reminds me of a movie scene where you are feeding an insatiable monster. Like the movie Little Shop of Horrors where the monster says “Feed me! Feed me!”
And as we waited for the high water to come, it also felt like being a town under siege. We knew the enemy was out there but did not know when it would attack or how big their force would be. Sometimes we didn’t even know where it would be striking. Unease all around. Folks were tense and sleep-deprived for days on end.
Folks in Hudson, Riverton and all over the Wind River Indian Reservation were flooded, too, as water from the three forks of the Popo Agie and the Little Wind and the Big Wind surged.
Most old-timers who were here for the 1963 flood thought this one was worse. In my 40 years here, this was the worst.
NOLS’s Joe Austin got sucked into a culvert while volunteering up at Popo Agie Estates and disappeared before everyone’s eyes. He was shot out the other end and emerged from the river very wet, very shaken but very much alive. It occurred on his 52nd birthday.
As of the time of this writing, there have no injuries or deaths. Lander Mayor Mick Wolfe had a bandaged right hand, a sandbagging injury. “I wasn’t watching and a gal speared me with a spade. I am not as quick as I used to be,” he commented dryly.
Numbers associated with the flood are amazing. Some officials said it was the biggest disaster event of this type in Wyoming in 10 years. Gov. Dave Freudenthal, U. S. Sen. John Barrasso and U. S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis toured the area Saturday and were impressed, both by the scope of the damage and commitment by volunteers in helping out.
By Saturday an estimated $1.5 million dollars in volunteer labor had already been expended. By Sunday, more than 300,000 sandbags had been filled.
On Sunday it was announced that a total of 400 National Guardsmen were on the job in Fremont County. Over 20 Army Corps of Engineers folks were here working all ends of the flood.
As I write this, the end of the flood danger has not yet occurred. But we appear to be relatively safe.
This old river has always had a confusing name.
Most folks pronounce it Poposha.
Some old-timers call it Popo Aggie.
One historian says it is Popo Argee.
Lately, I have been calling it Popo Angry.
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