Still no major flooding in Potlatch, Troy

Despite warnings from the National Weather Service, Potlatch Public Works Director Tom Andres was not fretting over the possibility of flooding even as the Potlatch River continued to rise Tuesday.

"I don't think we're going to flood," Andres said, adding he was not preparing sandbags or making any other flood preparations. "It's still got to come up 4 feet before it causes too many problems."

The river measured at 14.4 feet at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, still below the flood stage of 15 feet, according to the NWS's website. The river was expected to continue to rise throughout the night and this afternoon before cresting at 19.3 feet tonight.

If the forecast holds, the NWS expects water to be over Flannigan Creek Road where it crosses the Palouse River just downstream of Potlatch and extensive flooding of low lying areas between Potlatch and Palouse.

Even though the worst of the flooding is expected today, water Tuesday was beginning to surround Palouse Vet Clinic off of state Highway 6.

Kayla Hendrickx, a receptionist and technician at the clinic, said she parked her car in the front parking lot of the business because she did not want to walk through the flooded rear lot.

"We always joke around and say we have lakefront property," Hendrickx said.

One of Hendrickx's co-workers had dug a trench around the front sidewalk to divert water to the front lawn and prevent the sidewalk from flooding, Hendrickx said.

Lois Rasmussen, a resident on the 1600 block of Flannigan Creek Road, said she was not worried about the flooding encroaching on her home. She said her house has never flooded - not even during the 1996 flood.

"If it comes up to my house, we're going to have to get a lot more rain," she said. "I figure if something happens I'll just grab my horses and go up on the hill and visit my neighbors for a while - that's my escape route."

Roughly 30 miles away in Troy, Mitchell Nelson, manager of Little Bear Creek Cafe, said water from Little Bear Creek, which runs near the back of the restaurant, did not appear to be a threat. He said water had reached rocks piled against the base of the restaurant's shed last week, but levels had fallen 2 feet since then, Nelson said.

"If it would have rained the next day, this shed would have been underwater," he said.

Troy Mayor Ken Whitney said the city has sandbags if flooding becomes significant.

"Weather reports, they claim that it's going to rain pretty good again, so we'll just have to keep our eyes open," Whitney said.

Chuck Lyons, a Troy resident who was walking his German shorthaired pointer down Main Street on Tuesday, said the rain this season has not compared to the 1996 flood.

"We're lucky that we get these breaks between rain storms because it gives everything a chance to run off," Lyons said.

Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.