FLOOD01274 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I other years of high water were 1957, peak flow 5,220 cfs; 1952, 5,200 cfs; 1901, 5,000 cfs; and 1917,4,940 cfs. High water on the White River also results from ice jams. One local woman, who has lived in Meeker since 1945, recalls an ice jam in the winter of 1951 or 52 which threatened to flood portions of the Rustic Motel, where she lived at that time. and other residences along Water Street. However, before the flooding actually occurred, she said the ice jam was dynamited and the waters subsided. An ice jam during the winter of 1973 necessitated sand bagging the dike around the sewage treatment plant to keep floodwaters from overflowing the treatment facility. Subse- quent clearing of an island obstruction in the main river channel near the sewage plant is expected to reduce the likelihood of future flooding at this site. Mr. Dick Lyttle. retired publisher of the Meeker Herald, said that ice jams which did form during winter months were routinely dynamited without complication and that there were really no floods on the White River that he could recall where the water rose above Water Street. Mr. Lyttle went on to say, however, tha~ Sulphur Creek has overflowed its bank~ several times from cloudbursts.1 Sulphur Creek flowed diagonally through the -\--- ~. - town before it was realigned along Second Street in the early 1900's between the levees that now confine it, and it is normally dry with flow occurring only after periods of excess precipitation. Because the town has no storm drainage facilities, except for the town ditch which traverses the northern half of Meeker and inter- cepts some runoff originating above it, storm water from Sulphur Creek and Sanderson Heights has always flowed through Meeker following the path of least resistance. 5