Historical overtones
Wednesday, April 12, 2006 1:25 PM PDT
Larry Meyer Argus Observer
NYSSA
If there remains a single, critical consensus among irrigation officials - not to mention some residents - regarding the recent flooding it is that the Owyhee River channel after it reaches the valley below the dam does not have the capacity to carry the same amount of water as it did in 1984.
In 1984 the Owyhee River overflowed and flood waters crashed into the Owyhee Junction community, washing out stores and homes.
The flow of water in the Lower Owyhee River, downstream from the diversion dam for the Old Owyhee Ditch, has served for the past 13 years mainly as an outlet for runoff from area agriculture fields.
That runoff has in turn filled the channel with sediment that provided nutrients for the trees and plants growing along the river. The sediment, though, has also changed the channel.
“We can't handle as much water in the same places,” Gary Nielson, a longtime Owyhee River resident said.
Nielson said there are places in the river channel that once could handle 12,000 cubic feet a second of water flows to 15,000 cfs before, but now cannot handle 10,000 cfs.
Many of the same fields flooded this year were under water in 1984.
In 1984, water flows on the river reached a maximum of 18,000 cfs, April 20. According to the data from the United States Bureau of Reclamation, inflows into Owyhee Reservoir peaked two days earlier, April 18, 1984 at 22,800.
This year the peak inflow, so far, has been 24,584 cfs.
In 1984, by the time then Malheur County Judge Ernie Seuell announced the County Court had been alerted about possible flooding below the dam - April 16 - the lower part of the river had been carrying 10,000 cfs of water for about three weeks, and water officials were increasing the flow to 15,000 cfs.
An April 17, 1984, Argus Observer photo showed a home already surrounded by water. Information in the edition stated some families already had been evacuated.
According to the news story, a warm weekend prompted an onslaught of snow melt from the extremely heavy snowpack.
As the flood crisis developed that spring, water covered Oregon Highway 201 on the north side of Owyhee River Bridge.
Discussion soon began regarding the prospects of cutting the highway to let the water through.
Cal Martin, Owyhee Corners, said after the major flood in 1952, the highway was raised to keep flood waters on the west side of the highway from getting back to the river.
Unfortunately, the highway was cut too late as flood waters broke through the last ditch bank protecting the small Owyhee Corners community the evening of April 17, according to the April 18, Argus Observer.
Martin said he saw the water break through about 5 p.m.
“At 7 p.m., the flood water was in here,” he said.
Martin's wife, Ruth, arrived in a rush.
“It came real fast,” Ruth Martin said. She said she was at the nursing home visiting her mother, when someone told her that the Oregon Army National Guard was at the junction evacuating residents.
Bob Trotter, a member of the local Oregon Army National Guard unit, who now lives near the river just outside Owyhee Junction, was one of the Guard members called to duty there in 1984.
“It was wet,” Trotter said. Besides helping people evacuate, he said the Guard helped man road blocks.
“It was about nine weeks,” he said about the length of that duty.
The Martins, who were packing up things to move last week, said it was the third time for them, the other two were in 1952 and 1984.
However, they said 1984 was the only time they had water in the house, so far.
Sue Washburn, who operated Skinner Service which no longer exists, said none of the water made it inside their business, except in the pop room and in the basement.
Over at the Owyhee Grocery, which is still in business, then-owners Willis and Joanne Netz, reported their basement, which contained the main compressor, was full of water, and the whole east side of their building, plus the northwest corner sank.
Cal Martin said the water only took about 24 hours to drop once the highway was opened.
“When they cut the road to let the water through, it went down immediately,” he said.
However, the Martins were out of their house until the following July.
The one thing the Martins said they fondly remember is the people who came to help.
“People came in and moved our things,” Ruth Martin said. “People we didn't know . . . and we didn't know where they were taking our things.”
It turned out that everything was taken to a shed owned by Joel Price.
“People were really nice,” Ruth Martin said.
Nielsen, who, with his family, lived closer to the river in 1984, said the river came to close to their house, but never entered.
However, water came up throughthe ground and their house was damaged.
They rebuilt on a higher location on Owyhee Lake Road.
Like this year, the Owyhee River was not the only river flooding in 1984. One of them was the Snake River, which flooded areas around Ontario and Payette, and washed out a portion of Interstate 84, just east of Ontario.
The wash-out caused a flood of cars to go through Fruitland, which was the main detour route.
In the wake of the floods in 1984, Oregon Gov. Victor Atiyeh declared Malheur County a disaster area because of the flooding from the Snake and Owyhee rivers.
Payette County sought a similar designation.
