A bitter cold winter had left the Pacific Northwest blanketed in snow and the ground frozen. Then, seemingly overnight, warm winds drove temperatures from the negatives to as high as the 50s. Snowpacks melted rapidly. River waters, with nowhere else to go, swelled higher than anyone had seen in at least half a century. Floods washed out roads, highways and bridges, resulting in mudslides, damaged and destroyed homes and businesses, ruined culverts and even contaminated drinking water.
No one was injured or killed in the region during the weather event that some experts called a "perfect storm."
Since the floods of February 1996, communities have worked to rebuild and prepare for another disaster of that magnitude, should one occur again. Some towns have been revitalized, the flood a catalyst for change. Others are still licking their wounds.
PALOUSE
Of all the communities affected in southeastern Washington and north central Idaho, Palouse has arguably seen the greatest transformation since the 1996 floods. All of the changes — readily recognizable in the downtown area — have come about because of the community, according to the small town's residents.
"People want to help," said Mike Bagott, clerk/treasurer and fire chief. "People love this town. They like to live here. Even as horrible as whatever is going on at the moment is, the people care about the town and they want to overcome whatever's happening."
That spirit manifested itself when the Palouse River started raging Wednesday, Feb. 7, 1996, flooding dozens of businesses along Main Street. Residents, under the direction of Bruce Baldwin, filled the streets, working nonstop to protect the 1888 pump house and the town's only source of drinking water. Baldwin had been mayor just five weeks when the flooding started.
After the waters receded, Baldwin's next priority was getting the city back to "as normal as possible activity as quickly as possible."
In the following months and years, the downtown area received a face-lift. City hall was gutted and remodeled, including the installation of new floors. Three downtown buildings left vacant and dilapidated were torn down, making way for a new community center and a new tavern, the Palouse Caboose. A new grocery store, McCloud's Palouse Market, was built.
"Because of the age and the condition of some of the buildings and their location by the river, there was no way you were going to stay the same," said current Mayor Michael Echanove. "Some things, you can't go back and do. So you gotta think of different things to do."
All of the new properties were constructed with the flood in mind, Echanove said. The structures sit outside the 100-year floodplain, fortified by brick or cement walls.
As added protection, Palouse constructed a new well atop a hillside outside of town in about 2000.
Some preventive measures — like moving the town uphill or building a wall along the north side of the river — were discussed but never pursued.
With river gauges in place that can track increased flow and give advanced warning, city officials said Palouse could weather another major storm.
"If it were to happen again today, we'd be very prepared for it," Baldwin said.
PECK
In this community of fewer than 200 people, the threat of another major flood is a burden residents must bear themselves.
"One of my goals, since I've been mayor, is to get folks as educated as they can be about what your risks are and what you can do about it," said Nancy Greene, mayor since 2006.
Near the far eastern border of Nez Perce County, the city is at something of a disadvantage because of its location, Greene said. When the floodwaters barreled through in 1996, they completely closed off U.S. Highway 12, making it impossible for Nez Perce County aid to get to Peck from Lewiston.
"The community had to come together because there was no one, really, to help us," Greene said, noting Peck loggers and construction workers volunteered their time and equipment to respond to the disaster initially.
The city itself lacks resources, she added, listing a couple of part-time city staff, limited equipment and a volunteer fire department among its assets. With the city's main source of funding being property taxes, Greene said there's not much of a budget to work with.
In the aftermath of the 1996 floods, Peck received federal funding to repair roads and its water system. A Federal Emergency Management Agency grant also got Peck a generator to run its water plant, should the city lose electricity like it did 20 years ago.
Otherwise, there have been no major construction projects.
Four homes were destroyed in the flood, and "none of the people that lost their homes came back," Greene said. The land where those homes sat is now owned by Nez Perce County, said county Emergency Management Director Bryant Wolfe, and no new construction is allowed on those sites.
Those who live near Big Canyon Creek know the risks, Greene said. And Wolfe said his department continually works at preparedness and identifying areas of concern.
"The county's always trying to find mitigating measures to minimize those risks," he said, referring in part to mutual-aid agreements with other entities that provide support should Nez Perce County be unable to do so.
Greene said the attitude of self-sufficiency that living in Peck requires is something many of its residents already have.
"If there was another flood, we would get through it, but we would get through it because the people would come together," she said.
OROFINO
Clearwater County saw possibly the heaviest damage in February 1996. It included the destruction of at least a dozen homes and Orofino's Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, damage to upward of 150 houses, the wipeout of Orofino's main thoroughfare, Michigan Avenue, and contamination of the city's drinking water.
But the county also may have been one of the best at handling the disaster.
Nick Albers, then county sheriff, recalled the command center established at the courthouse in Orofino, where all emergency logistics were coordinated. Contractors volunteered to help mitigate the disaster, much as was done in nearby Peck.
"They didn't have to be told what to do," Albers said. "They were doing it. That's eventually what really brought us through the whole thing."
The devastation in Clearwater County surpassed $20 million in 1996. But much of the damage was addressed and repaired in the following months. Miles of riprap was put in place along Orofino Creek. New bridges were built. New culverts were installed. Roads, including Michigan Avenue, were repaired and improved with the help of federal disaster funds. Water lines were replaced as the city of Orofino lived on trucked-in bottled water for weeks.
"You have the initial damage and even though you might be able to temporarily repair that damage ... they have to be repaired properly, and to do that, you have to wait until certain times of the year," said longtime Orofino City Administrator Rick Laam.
The area where the church was lost is now a park. The city purchased the properties of the homes that were destroyed, and to discourage residents from building new houses in floodplains, the city of Orofino requires extensive procedures to be followed and guidelines to be met. Clearwater County Emergency Management is now staffed full time, with Don Gardner its coordinator. Gardner monitors the new river gauges at Orofino Creek and the Clearwater River. The county's All Hazard Mitigation Plan is undergoing routine updates.
"We know a lot because of the '96 flood," said Clearwater County Commissioner Don Ebert. "We know where potential problem spots are. We focus there first. We know where the resources are. We know how to get to them quick."
ASOTIN COUNTY
In the southeastern-most corner of Washington, one man is the face of all emergency management operations.
"It's tough when you're a one-person office, part time," Butch Aiken, director of the county's program for 21 years, said with a laugh.
The floods of 1996 mainly damaged Asotin County's roads. The $3 million in damages took a while to repair, Aiken remembered.
About six to eight homes along Asotin Creek saw flooded basements and electrical damage, but downtown Asotin, Clarkston and its neighbor, Lewiston, were not engulfed.
In the wake of the floods, the major improvement that came to Asotin and Garfield counties was additional monitoring systems. In about 2000, Aiken said snow-tells were installed at 4,000 feet in Asotin County and at 5,700 feet in Garfield County. The equipment lets him monitor the levels of snow, snowmelt, rain, wind direction and wind speed.
"That is one of the biggest things right there, just the new technology," he said.
Those technological advances would mean different outcomes for Asotin County if another 1996 flood struck.
"I don't see the very same thing happening because if we knew in '96 what we know now, we'd have a five-day lead," Aiken said. "We'd know how much snow was up there. We'd know how much (precipitation) we had."
LATAH COUNTY
Like Asotin County, roads were the main concern during the floods in Idaho's Latah County. Waters washed out highways and bridges, and pooled in communities like Potlatch and Bovill, trapping residents there. Backed-up culverts only worsened the problem. Homes along Moscow's Paradise Creek inevitably got damaged by flooding.
With the help of federal funds, the county helped build two new bridges and culverts in Troy and Genesee. Those were the priorities in the county's All Hazard Mitigation Plan, but Sandy Rollins, former disaster services coordinator, said there's more that needs to be done.
"There's still areas that need culverts," she said. "There's still areas that need roads redone."
Part of what's prevented further progress is funding, say Rollins and Mike Neelon, current disaster services coordinator. The other issue is the priorities outlined in the mitigation plan, which lists fires first and flooding second.
Neelon said Latah County is better prepared for massive flooding than it was in 1996. Like the other counties affected, its river gauges electronically monitor waterways. Laser mapping helps Neelon see areas where past flooding occurred and where the current floodplains are located.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
Another "perfect storm" like the floods of 1996 likely won't happen again anytime soon.
John Livingston, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Spokane, said the flooding was "record-breaking and unprecedented," and that was because of what caused it.
"It wasn't a spring snowmelt flood and it wasn't solely because we got a lot of rain," he said. "It was a combination of events that made it so big."
Flooding did hit the region again in 1997, but Livingston said it didn't compare to the extraordinary circumstances of '96.
"The chances of it happening again are certainly good at some point somewhere, but given those two events and the fact that it really hasn't happened since, we'll see," he said.
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©2016 the Lewiston Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho)
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