The force of nature is something no human being can comprehend until they actually see or feel it.

People who experience earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes or wildfires know all about their basic insignificance in the grand scheme, if they’re lucky enough to survive them.

Here in the East Kootenay the only real natural disasters we’re familiar with are wildfires and landslides/avalanches – which are also something that no one can fully comprehend until they’re experiencing one. Generally, if you experience an avalanche or landslide – you won’t experience anything else ever again, at least not on this plain of existence and wildfires are something one does not wish to have roaring down on them. Wildfires gave us all cause to pause back in 2003.

Floods are another natural disaster which concerns some communities in our region, though we’ve been darned lucky to dodge them lately. But they do happen and in some cases, they happen without warning in the form of the ‘flash flood.’

More commonly associated with arid or semi-arid areas, flash floods are as nasty and perilous as any other natural disaster.

A couple of years ago nature’s fury was witnessed at the junction of Delphine Creek and Toby Creek just west of Panorama Mountain Village. A dam of debris built up in the Delphine Creek Canyon and when it broke free, it exploded out of the canyon with such incredible force that it knocked the Delphine Creek Bridge completely off its based and nudged it toward Toby Creek. It also scoured away a massive hunk of earth and rock from the western side of Delphine Creek.

Standing down in the aftermath of that slide and contemplating the power required to move so much heavy earth, gave me the shivers. The area that was eradicated was a place I used to take my daughter for campfire picnics.

Recently, we had the rare opportunity to see the aftermath of another hydrological disaster, down in Northern Idaho.

Nearby a cabin we are lucky enough to be able to visit now and then is a road washout, on Cocolalla Loop Road, about 10 miles south of Sandpoint.

The ‘washout’ was a bit larger than I was expecting when we walked past the concrete abutment barricade halting traffic on the road, which provides access to about 260 homes and cabins. From the barricade, it looked pretty nasty but nothing too spectacular.

Once I walked down to the site, its full scale became apparent, as hopefully evident in the images contained here.

Record rains for the month of March in the area resulted in much higher water levels than normal, in Lake Cocolalla and the waterways that feed and drain it.

I wasn’t even aware there was a creek running below the road at the site of the washout. A small culvert (pictured) became plugged and the water level began to rise against the sandy-soil making up the road base, built up to avoid the need for a small bridge. At a given point, the force and weight of that water exploded the roadway and its base toward the lake. The sound must have been terrifying when that mass of soil, rock, roadway concrete, timber and water burst forth.

Judging from the old cans and assorted debris that I spotted down in the carnage zone, the roadway must have been constructed in the 1950s sometime, if not sooner. The narrow culvert that channeled the small creek under the roadway was obviously viewed as being large enough to handle storm and spring run-off. And it had handled things until a couple of weeks ago.

Natural disasters are always making us change the way we build, whether high rises, bridges, roads or seawalls. I reckon the Idaho Transportation Department will be demanding a larger culvert with provisions added to decrease the odds of  build up at that particular spot on Cocolalla Loop Road, humorously coined ‘a new tourist attraction’ by a cheeky local.

Unfortunately for the State and for Bonners County, a goodly sum of money had just been spent on the northern half of the Loop Road, repairing it from the decrepit state it was in, a year before. The area where the washout occurred was a pretty good piece of road, but an estimated $600,000 must be found to repair the road. Nearby Highway 95 is receiving $54 million makeover, with entire strips of the highway being moved (at Silverwood) and a number of overpasses are being constructed, as well.

And adding to the tension on Cocolalla Loop Road is the fact that a small bridge spanning Cocolalla Creek, at the northern entrance to the road, is currently being watched with nervous eyes as roiling waters are scouring soil away from the bridge abutments.

“If that bridge were to fail, that would leave 260 homes isolated between the bridge and that slide area,” said Bonner County Emergency Management Director Bob Howard to the Bonner County Daily Bee.

Meanwhile, the long-under-construction Sand Creek Byway at Sandpoint, where Highway 95 will continue from the Causeway along the railway tracks, via Sand Creek to Ponderay, is expected to be opened by late spring or early summer.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW 

Article Share