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ITD crews render flood assistance

By KMVT-TV
TWIN FALLS - Thanks to all of the storms southern Idaho saw this winter, employees of the Idaho Transportation Department got plenty of practice in responding to emergencies... so their dump trucks and backhoes are ready to go wherever they're needed to control water coming from Magic Dam.

"Our main interest is the state highway system and the bridges that go over the Wood River and the Little Wood River, and making sure that our system remains functional," said District Engineer Devin Rigby.

Rigby says ITD has its equipment strategically located in Carey, Shoshone, and Bliss so employees can get to any problem areas as quickly as possible.

Friday (April 14), hundreds of cubic feet per second of water poured over the spillways just west of the top of Magic Dam.

KMVT Weather Director Michael Rogers says, "We're just basically starting the beginning of this water coming down toward our area. So you look at the Camas Prairie runoff from there. In another couple of weeks we're going to start mountain runoff, and then things are going to get pretty bad."

Rogers also says all that water has to go somewhere, and it's definitely headed our way.

He says because of water flowing from all the little streams that feed the rivers in northern Magic Valley, we're going to see runoff on a big scale for the first time in a long time.