![]() ![]() Gibson Reservoir holds 99,000 acre-feet of water. ![]() West of Augusta, water rushed over the top of the 199-foot-high Gibson Dam, releasing a wave into the Sun River that flooded agricultural land and every community between the dam and Great Falls, a distance of 80 miles.Ī single acre foot of water equals 325,851 gallons and weighs 1.3 tons. "Once that happens, you are at the mercy of Mother Nature." "I think they did the best job they could with the tools they had, but there's not much you can do when you have dams failing," Loss said. Now, river gauge readings are collected and then transmitted via satellite every hour so the Weather Service sees real-time stream conditions, Loss said.Īnd communication is better too, especially with the advent of social media. Geological Survey official going out and reading the chart. Unless a call was received from an observer, there was no way of knowing what the stream was doing without a U.S. In 1964, for example, river gauge readings were recorded by charts and a network of observers who lived near streams and rivers, she said. ![]() Technological advances have improved forecasting and weather reporting and thus warnings. Loss said it's possible that a similar flood today might result in less loss of life. "It's just a really good example of what can happen when all the ingredients come together in the wrong way," Loss said. The heavy rainfall was produced from the collision of moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, an upper level low-pressure system approaching from the west and surface high pressure and associated cold air sliding down from the north. Heavy snowpack in the mountains was released in the extreme rainfall, which fell an inch an hour. Prior to 1964, serious flooding had occurred in 1927, 1938, 19.īut as John Fassler writes in the book "Montana Weather," the intensity of a rainstorm on June 7 and June 8, 1964, made the flood that year the most devastating and spectacular on record. In a typical year, streams and rivers that meander out of the mountains are harnessed for irrigation, making the prairie bloom with wheat and barley and grasses and hay for livestock. Harding is a retired National Weather Service meteorologist who was the lead forecaster on duty in Great Falls at the time of the flood. "Oh, it just roared," Warren Harding, 92, said of the Sun River, one of many streams and rivers that flooded in northwestern and northcentral Montana. But to date, alternating cooler and warmer temperatures, and minimal precipitation, have kept spring runoff in check. This year, locations still exist where 30 to 40 inches of water remain locked in deep mountain snow that a prolonged rain or warm weather or heavy thunderstorm could quickly melt, Loss said. Mid-May to mid-June is flood season in Montana. "From the weather perspective, there's nothing saying that it couldn't happen again." "Any time you have that significant loss of life, it's just something you need to keep in mind that this did happen at one point," Loss said. More than $30 million of the damage occurred in communities on the eastern Front, from Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Reservation south to northern Lewis and Clark County and as far east as Great Falls.Įven 50 years afterward, it's worth remembering the flood, says Gina Loss, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Great Falls. Geological Survey and state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. When it was over, damage totaled $62 million which, adjusted for inflation, would total $474 million today, according to the U.S. On June 7 and June 8, biblical rains pounded higher-than-average mountain snow pack causing what the National Weather Service says is the worst flood on record in Montana. The greatest damage was concentrated in an area bounded by the Dearborn River on the south, Interstate 15 on the east between Great Falls and Helena, the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and Glacier National Park on the north and the Flathead River on the west, a 12,000-square-mile area with the Continental Divide running through it. ![]() The infamous flood 50 years ago overwhelmed streams and rivers draining out of the Rocky Mountains, forcing the evacuation of 8,700 people, according to a report on the flood by the U.S. Rattler wasn't alone in feeling powerless. "I used to see them screaming and hollering in my sleep," Rattler said. View Gallery: Blackfeet Reservation flooding ![]()
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