Rains battering county roads
<p>An Isuzu sport utility vehicle plunges through a partially flooded portion of Ontario Street in Sandpoint on Thursday. Motorists in the county are tangling with harsher road conditions. (Photo by KEITH KINNAIRD)</p>
SANDPOINT — Bonner County Road & Bridge crews scrambled Friday to keep roads open in the wake of unrelenting rainstorms this week.
“It’s been a busy day,” said Bob Howard, director of Bonner County Emergency Management.
County commissioners declared a state of emergency Friday in order to qualify for disaster assistance for the stricken roadways.
“It’s about a half-million dollars of damage,” Commission Chairman Cornel Rasor said, adding that reports of damage in the county were still incoming.
It’s the second year in a row wet weather has wreaked havoc on county roads.
Washouts and water-over-the-road conditions were vexing South Sagle Road, Geenan Road, Butler Creek Spur, Talache Road, Blacktail at Little Blacktail, Cocolalla Loop Road, Colburn Culver Road at North Center Valley Road, Nettlingham Road, East Spring Creek Road, Overlake View Road, Boyer Avenue at Vedelwood, Sunnyside Road, Snow Valley Road, Peterson Road, Sagle Creek Road, Eureka Road, Beers Humbird Road, Bottle Bay Road, Mirror Lake Road, Granite-Kelso Lake Road and Sportsman Access Road.
Most of the stricken roads were reduced to a single lane, although there were a few complete closures, such as the Sportsman Access Road in Cocolalla.
“We will probably not have any totally closed roads by the end of the day. We’ll have them open to at least one lane,” Howard said.
The National Weather Service in Spokane is forecasting morning snow on Saturday then rain or snow showers in the afternoon. Snow accumulations up to 2 inches are forecasted for the mountains and up to an inch in the valleys.