Flooding along the Tongue River (Ranchester, Sinclair: house, to buy, high school)

[ElkHunter]

If you have noticed, I haven't been spending a lot of time on the forum. As of last Friday, the 23rd of May, the Tongue River came over the banks. So I have been filling sand bags. So far, we have well over 750 sand bags placed around here.

Wolf Creek Road is closed because of the river flooding.

This is all snowmelt..... well, until today. Today it's raining. Up on top of the mountain, the snow melts all day and then travels down through the canyons and hits my place about 7am. We actually peak from 6-8am.

The first day, it only came over a little bit, so we filled sand bags and got it stopped at the river edge. Right now, those sand bags are under water, along with the corrals. We've got the team and the colt moved to high ground with a portable electric fence, giving them a whopping 100 ft x 100 ft area. Water is up to about 6-8 feet from my cabin. I will say that the water up here, is ground seepage, still water. We have the river stopped. We are 8 layers up, with bags. The dyke that we built after the 2011 flooding, is holding fine, but the water, when it peaks, is up to within 3 inches of the top. So yes, we have sand bagged that also.

I have been taking pictures every morning and sending to NOAA in Billings (our reporting facility). I am up by 4, throw together an egg or 3, and I am out the door by 5am to scout around town and take pictures. Those pictures, along with the report is sent in by 7 or shortly after.

On Wednesday, I rode the 4 wheeler in to town for a doctors appointment. When I left town, I could see some nasty clouds building up so I was going to hurry home. About 2 miles out of town on Soldier Creek Rd, the wind hit me and put me in the ditch. I turned around and headed back to town, it was nasty. When I got in by the High School, somebody's topper off their truck went flying by me, missed it by less than 10 feet. I went and sat out the storm at my daughters house. Airport reported the initial wind was 75 mph. Somebody moving a double wide, flipped it in the median up by 5th street. It was terrible. It blew like that for maybe 30 minutes and then stopped. I was finally able to get home. I had some plants on my porch, ready to go in the garden. They were no longer there, but instead, the wind blew them out in the yard, which was flooded. So now I get to start over, going to buy plants from Wally World, it's too late to plant seeds.

Today was the first day in a week, that I didn't spend all day filling sand bags.

I have a surgery coming up in Billings, on 9 June. I had to go up to Billings yesterday for a stress test, EKG, and Ultrasound. I told the doctor about filling sand bags all week. They did the EKG and UltraSound and sent me home, said I didn't need a stress test after the week I had. They measure your heart from 50-75 and my heart measured at 74, so I guess I'm good to go.

Right now, it's raining pretty steady. We don't need this, not now. So I am watching the river pretty closely.

[ScottStielow]

Stay safe EH. I keep getting news weather flashes, and photos on Facebook from Sheidan Media everyday.
I kinda figured you were busy with the weather. Fingers crossed that the rain will stop for a few days , and let everyone dry out.

[ElkHunter]

Took a picture. If you look in the center, there is a lone will tree sticking out of the water. That is at the edge of our corral, the river is on the other side of the tree. On thursday, the water was up to the top bag. Water on this side, is only seepage. This row of sandbags is 100 feet from my cabin door.

If you look on the right side, there is a row of white. Those were our initial sand bags, 2 high. We went from a little water, to 2 ft deep in a couple hours. So we abandoned the first row and put this secondary row in.

Thanks Scott, got the boat gassed up just in case.

[Froggie Legs]

Praying that you'll get some relief and won't have to make a third row!

[Happy in Wyoming]

Originally Posted by Froggie Legs

Praying that you'll get some relief and won't have to make a third row!

Drought problems here are far worse than flooding. I am aware that fire is a natural event, part of Wyoming ecology, but fires cause far more interruptions to our economic lives than minor flooding.

I noticed one poster's thinking a 75 mph wind is a cause for worry. I know that I had several days this past winter and spring of winds higher than that; Clark exceeded 100 mph. Big deal; it's Wyoming.

[Froggie Legs]

Yes, but I'm considering the human aspect of having ones house flood... rain is not a bad thing in and of itself, but when it takes over your living-room...then a bit of concern and empathy is in order.

[ScottStielow]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

Took a picture. If you look in the center, there is a lone will tree sticking out of the water. That is at the edge of our corral, the river is on the other side of the tree. On thursday, the water was up to the top bag. Water on this side, is only seepage. This row of sandbags is 100 feet from my cabin door.

If you look on the right side, there is a row of white. Those were our initial sand bags, 2 high. We went from a little water, to 2 ft deep in a couple hours. So we abandoned the first row and put this secondary row in.

Thanks Scott, got the boat gassed up just in case.

Wow. EH is is still raining, or in the forecast later today.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by ScottStielow

Wow. EH is is still raining, or in the forecast later today.

We are currently under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch, but it is not currently raining. The water is down considerably since morning. Not even running across my driveway.

[Happy in Wyoming]

Originally Posted by Froggie Legs

Yes, but I'm considering the human aspect of having ones house flood... rain is not a bad thing in and of itself, but when it takes over your living-room...then a bit of concern and empathy is in order.

Fire has been known to destroy buildings; millions of animals from mice to moose die in drought and fires. Have you ever seen and smelled smoke from a fire two hundred miles away? Have you ever seen hardpan that won't allow water to penetrate when rain finally comes because it's like cement? Even the sagebrush die.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming

Drought problems here are far worse than flooding. I am aware that fire is a natural event, part of Wyoming ecology, but fires cause far more interruptions to our economic lives than minor flooding.

I noticed one poster's thinking a 75 mph wind is a cause for worry. I know that I had several days this past winter and spring of winds higher than that; Clark exceeded 100 mph. Big deal; it's Wyoming.

It's all in a person's perspective. The other day I was on the way back from town when that 75 mph wind hit. We went from calm, to a wall of wind, and it put me in the ditch. So do I think 75 is strong? Sure is when it hits like that. I turned around and went back into town. As I was going past the Sinclair station, somebody's pickup topper came tumbling across the road. I jumped on the binders and it passed within 10 feet of me. Keep in mind, I was on my 4 wheeler. It uprooted several big pine trees in the entrance to the VA. Blew down some 100 year old trees. Couple semi's wound up upside down in the ditch.

The thing is, I live in Ranchester, and just because it is in Wyoming, doesn't mean that I should expect wind like that. I don't live in Clark, and if I did, I would expect wind, but not here. We just don't get winds like that, ever. There are signs down, uprooted the concrete posts in the ground. Those signs were there for 20+ years and they held fine.

NOAA/NWS called me a bit ago and wanted to lift the Flood warning. I recommended that they keep it in place. One neighbor has 80 acres where he keeps his horses. The horses have about 3 acres to play on, the rest is under water. The city dump truck is setting in the city parking lot, frame deep in water. Roads around here are baracaded because water is running over the road. Our park has several big, trees laying on their sides. When you flood the park for 5 or 6 days, with 4 ft of water, then the wind hits like that, they tend to lay down. If the water goes down enough to open those roads, then I'll call them up and recommend they pull the flood warning. Like I said in Scott's reply, we're currently under Severe Thunderstorm Watch. Sky is black to the East of me. Radar shows severe thunderstorm West of us, and now East of us is another. As I was typing the last sentence, my alert radio went off, changed to a warning for my location. Hail up to 2 inches has been observed, high winds. We don't need it right now. Now the Radio (FM) is going off with the weather alert.