Flooding continues to be an issue in Bingham County

BLACKFOOT — With temperatures starting to warm up the flooding situation in areas like Blackfoot is being closely monitored.

While no roads in Bingham County are currently closed, water has already been seen on some roads and the county has been busy dealing with many of the problems associated with flooding.

Scott Reese, the Emergency Management Director of Bingham County, said “We are opening culverts and the road and bridge guys have been spending a lot of time repairing roads after we had the floods in early February… And if you’ve been out and traveling you know what we’re dealing with and there isn’t a lot of places the water can go.”

Minor flooding is usually associated with this time of year, but after the crazy winter we’ve had it’s only expected to get worse.

After the second most snow on record there is a lot of it waiting to melt and move downward causing more flooding.

“We have all this snow on the ground and the warmer temperatures are coming,” Meteorologist John Hinsberger said.
“So all that snow is melting and that is making its way into lower lying areas and making its way to the rivers,”

While it may seem bad now, Emergency Management is already gearing up for another round of flooding with this newest streak of warm temperatures.

“There is still a lot of snow out on the desert if you go out down (U.S. Highway) 26 it’s like another world out there,” Reese said. “I expect it will be a busy next two weeks out there.”

And with more and more run off expected the Snake River is expected to see flooding in the later periods of spring through May.

Officials say People who live in areas that are prone to flooding should have a plan in place just in case and consider staying at someone else’s house so that emergency services are within reach.

This article was originally published at KPVI. It is used here with permission.