The Steamboat Pilot & Today

A barbed wire fence sets in several feet of water that has collected in a pasture near Routt County Road 62 near Clark. Photo by John F. Russell

The rising water of Cottonwood Creek flows over a small section of Routt County Road 62 near Clark. Lower temperatures Thursday kept water levels down, but residents fear the water will continue to rise with higher temperatures. Photo by John F. Russell

North Routt — The swollen water from Cot­tonwood Creek is rising to houses in North Routt County, which faces a weekend due to bring wet and warm weather that may exacerbate conditions.

North Routt, including the Elk River and Cottonwood and Greenville creeks, has been under a National Weather Service flood advisory since 1 p.m. Wednesday. The advisory, which is enacted when river and stream flows are elevated and ponding of water is occurring or imminent, is due to remain in effect until 1 p.m. today.

“Cottonwood Creek is out of its banks and has been for three nights — and last night it didn’t go back in,” Routt County Emergency Management Dir­ector Chuck Vale said Thursday. “We may put the Elk River under (flood) warning in a little bit.”

At a U.S. Geological Survey measuring station near Milner, the Elk River measured Thursday at nearly 139 percent of its historical discharge record for May 8. Shortly after 3 p.m., the river was churning at 4,510 cubic feet per second, breaking the 3,250 cfs record set in 1916, according to the USGS Web site.

Although the water has approached seven homes in North Routt and turned the North Routt Community Char­ter School playground into a mud pit, no significant property damage has been reported. Sandbag operations have been going well, and homeowners have been able to successfully divert water from their residences, Vale said.

At Del’s Triangle 3 Ranch off Routt County Road 62, Rowan Heid said he had 2 1/2 feet of water flowing just outside his house Wednesday. The 250-sandbag levee he assembled on Cottonwood Creek — which runs across the property — was only enough to try to guide the flooding, not contain it.

“It was absolutely amazing to watch,” Heid said. “I’ve got two 36-inch culverts that are completely full, and all it takes is one little stick to make it flood again.”

Heid had to evacuate some of his horses Wednesday when their stalls flooded, though he was happy to note that the carpets in his house had remained dry.

“I’m not able to leave at all,” Heid said. “I’ve got flooding all over here, and I’ve got a mare that’s about to foal that I’m watching, too.”

In addition to stranding stumps, logs and driftwood in the middle of open fields, the high water also took down plenty of the rocks Heid put in place to maintain the creek’s banks.

“We had two 500-pound boulders go loose yesterday, and had ’em banging down all the way around the corner,” Heid said.

Water was flowing over C.R. 62 in four places Thursday just north of Clark, taking fence posts and portions of the roadway with it down the valley, though the road remained open to traffic.

The Routt County Road and Bridge Department has signed and coned the affected areas, and has asked that only local traffic use C.R. 62 until further notice, Vale said.

A small storm system due to roll in this afternoon is unlikely to calm the water in North Routt, John Kyle said Thursday from the National Weather Service station in Grand Junction. The system will bring with it a chance of thunderstorms and high-elevation snow persisting into Saturday, and high temperatures near 60, he said.

Sunday is expected to be sunny, with daytime temperatures in the high 60s, Kyle said.

“A little more rain or more heat is going to become problematic on the Elk River,” Vale said. “We’re watching it vigilantly.”