The winter snowpack has been melting into floodwaters, causing seven Idaho counties to declare disasters Saturday as other counties braced for overflowing rivers.
"The heavy snow pack is melting and running into the reservoirs and the rivers," state Disaster Services spokesman Jim Ball said. "The result is heavy flooding."The counties where flood disasters have been declared included Custer, Madison, Jefferson, Bonneville, Bingham and Twin Falls, Ball said. In the coming days, several other counties could be hard hit, he warned.
Major roadways in central and southeastern Idaho were flooded, including I-15, a north-south roadway linking Blackfoot to Idaho Falls.
As many as 60 homes and farms just outside Blackfoot, in Idaho's potato growing Bingham County, were flooded.
"It's coming in slowly," said Rick Just, a spokesman for the Bingham County emergency center. "The water is relentless."
Hundreds of people in and around Roberts, along the swollen Snake River, were evacuated.