Flooding is hitting Harney County
By Mindy Gould on Thursday, April 13th, 2023 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
Harney County-Yesterday morning the Silvies over ran the flood gates and was starting to back flow and is currently 8.25 ft. Current forecast has the Silvies surging on Monday at 9.6 ft.
Flooding in 2017 saw the river crest at 13.23 ft. The flooding in 2011 had the Silvies crest at 13.50 ft.
The initial trigger point was 8 ft but the county started seeing issues at 7 ft, so they began response.
Casey O’Conner with the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge secured a pump and some BLM Fire personnel. Harney County Emergency Management went out and picked up the pump and the BLM truck brought back hoses and other parts.
Harney County Emergency Management, BLM personnel and Burns Public Works got the pump set, primed and running at 1000 gallons per minute which will bring the water down protecting residences in the City, Tribal and County. Harney County Emergency Management are continuously monitoring NOAA Hydrologic gauges, and keeping eyes on the Silvies river by patrolling down through Folley Road, West Loop Road, the Reservation, HWY 20, HWY 78 and Riverside Drive area.
Here are the resources that Harney County Emergency Management have used:
• City of Burns Public Works pump, fuel and personnel. Burns Public Works has also been tracking flooding and operating/managing resources.
• Burns Fire Department is managing the sandbag operations down at the station, continuously tracking flooding in real-time/on scene and managing resources.
• Burns Paiute Emergency Management has been continuously tracking flooding and managing resources.
• Harney County Emergency Management has been tracking flooding via NOAA monitors and in real-time/on scene, securing and managing additional resources.
• All 3 agencies – Burns Fire, Burns Paiute Tribe and Harney County EM have been coordinating together as a Joint EOC with regards to response and resources.
• Refuge pump picked up by Harney County EM and BLM personnel and installed.
• 2 truckloads of sand donated from ACW and sandbags on-hand from City of Burns, Harney County and the Burns Paiute Tribe – 1500 bags were donated to Harney County from Deschutes County a couple years back and the Tribe had some donated from Warm Springs. Residents from the City, County and Tribe have filled and have or are using sandbags.
• City of Burns Public Works will be manning the pump 24/7 until we’re done with it and the levee road has been closed to the public.
Harney County is supposed to get another surge that is higher on Monday as temperatures warm back up and Bear Valley continues to run off and there is still a lot of snow up in the forest areas. Silver Creek had a surge and saw a significant drop off.
The Donner and Blitzen Rivers also saw a surge that flooded Paige Springs Campground and over ran the river banks.
Sheet flooding out in Harney County continues on HWY 20 by milepost 140 out past Drewsey.
