The Oregon Office of Emergency Management last month released a new online dashboard. The tool includes an interactive map and a list of how many stream gauges are expected to be nearing flood stage, or have minor flooding, moderate flooding or major flooding. As of early this week, no gauges around Oregon indicated flooding.
Last month, a storm brought heavy rain to parts of Oregon. Daniel Stoelb, the geographic information system coordinator for the state Office of Emergency Management, created the stream gauge dashboard so people could quickly check how high water was rising.
Anyone with a home or other property along a river or creek, as well as river guides and people who fish, will find the new dashboard useful, said Lane County spokeswoman Devon Ashbridge.
"We absolutely recognize the value of data like this," she said. "Anything that makes it easier for people to access data is a great thing."
She noted that the Mohawk River north of Springfield and the Siuslaw River near Mapleton have had flooding in the recent past.
National Weather Service meteorologist David Bright said the dashboard is a neat tool, after looking at it for the first time Monday. He also said the dashboard could be helpful for emergency managers and utilities.
The state's new tool isn't the only online resource for people looking to know more about river levels in Oregon. The U.S. Geological Survey maintains stream gauges around the United States, which provide real-time river level readings at waterwatch.usgs.gov. And the National Weather Service's Northwest River Forecast Center predicts stream levels in Oregon, as well as Washington and other parts of the Northwest, at nwrfc.noaa.gov.
Another storm is expected to roll into Oregon off the Pacific Ocean this week, said Bright, who works in the Weather Service's Portland Office. "But we don't have any real flooding rain on the horizon," he said. "It's not a huge rain producer."
Follow Dylan Darling on Twitter @DylanJDarling. Email dd@registerguard.com.
___
(c)2019 The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.)
Visit The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) at www.registerguard.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
