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1 1 ~i ~S OUNTI'/HOA4E OF JOEL' TFIEISSEI~' 3~ curs Moffat Coun By NL[E BAXTER Sniff K~rirer Eric Young spent Wednesday afternoon worrying about 10 incites of water. Thal was the distance separating his home at 1505 Barclay St. from the rising waters of Fortification Creek. Young said the Floods come every ye<nr, but no[ this earl y and not with this intensity. "1 have a neighbor who said !t hasn't been like this for the last 20 years," he said Wednesdav afternoon. "If it rises another 10 inches, it would be in our house" A1any Craig and Moffat County residents shared Young's worries. Early snow melt caused coshing waters endangering many homes, flooding streets and keeping emer- gency workers up ail night. The Flooding took almost ever}•one by surprise. "This is absolutely an anomaly;' Moffat County Sheriff Jeff Corriveau said. "This doesn't happen in March." "This is unheard of;' Craig Police Chief Rex Splitt said. The first reports of Flooding stoned trick- ling in about 2 p.m., Wednesday. Moffat County Sheriff's Deputy Han}' Blakeman said those early reports focused mostly on County Roads 7, 36, 17, 15, G1, ?and 30. ' the p!ablam i~rean nnrtl;we;t o` rrai~ at Big t~ulcn,.. ,ara B!a4ernan, tvho !s aiu~ C.:o- ing as infor-ration otficur for a multi-agency emergency operations center. 'The water con- [irued building and increasing until about 7 p. m. 1[ leveled off for about an hour and around 8 p.m. it started receding." But the recession didn't come in time. About 9 p.m., the City of Craig started receiving phone calls about the rapidly using level of Fortification Creek. "By 10 p. m. it was out of its banks;' Blakeman said. By 10:30 p.m. the emergency response unit was called together. Above 75 employees from the city and county road departments, the Craig Police Department, the Moffat County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff's Posse, the Civil Air Patrol, the Craig Fire/Rescue and Moffat County Emergency Medical Sen-ice spent the night dealing with the water. Fire department volunteers spent the night piling sandbags around homes in danger of being overrun by rs.•[ter. Blakeman said $1,000 worth of hip waders were purchased to keep volunteers dry and warm. "The water was pretty cold." he said. Counry and city trucks were also out dur- ingthe night building sand banks for the creek that tamed into a river. "The city and county dumped a lot of sand on the east side of the creek to make banks that are probably f!ve to six feet high;' said Blakeman. "(Those banks) are what pre- vented an awful lot of damage." Neighborhoods hit hardest by the rapids that used to be allow-moving stream were the Buller suhdivision, the 600 block of Lincoln Street and where Ninth and Washington streets intersect. Blakeman said law enforce- ment officers went to approximately 80 homes and warned families of the flood dan- See Water on page 2. Road closures Rn„d closures and horn; ~5 .^<7^trL' Count, as of 10 a. nt. today: • County Road 7 is under an es!i- mated four feet of waver, wnh the majority of damage 12 miles m,rth- west of Craig. County crews don't expect Cotmry Road 7 to be reopened for at least two or three weeks. • Counry Road 17 north of Lay. Officials were hoping County Road 17 would be reopened by noon today. • County Road 2 near Slater is washed out. • Lincoln Street between the 500 and 600 blocks. • Counry Road 9 to County Road 4 has sustained considerable damage.