CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Rain and a spring heat wave that is quickly melting mountain snowpack have sent rivers rising in west-central Wyoming to record or near-record levels, washing out small bridges and flooding some homes. No casualties have been reported.
"We don't have a lot of control over it. The city guys and volunteers are working like crazy," Nancy Webber, a resident of the town of Lander, said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon. "And hopefully it will peak today or tomorrow and things will get better as the week goes on. But you never can tell."
Lander, a town of about 7,000 residents in Fremont County, where the Popo Agie River is out of its banks, asked residents to conserve water after one of the town's water lines running under the river broke, Webber said.
About 100 members of the Wyoming National Guard have been deployed to evacuate people and help bag sand in Fremont County, which Gov. Dave Freudenthal has declared a disaster area. Some 86,000 sandbags have been distributed and another 220,000 are on order.
"We are anticipating that the floodwaters will continue to rise in various rivers throughout the county over the course of the next couple of days," 2nd Lt. Christian Venhuizen of the Wyoming guard said Tuesday from Lander, where the guard set up a command post.
Rivers in Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Washington and Oregon are churning with water from a rapid snowmelt caused by a sudden warming trend. Temperatures in Denver topped 90 degrees Monday. Rain has exacerbated the situation in many places.
People were keeping a nervous eye on rising rivers in Colorado, where the high water prompted some rafting companies to halt guided trips. An Aspen, Colo., man rafting in the swollen Eagle River drowned over the weekend.
In Estes Park, Colo., a northern Colorado town near Rocky Mountain National Park, some 500 sandbags were handed out Monday to hold back the rising Big Thompson River.
There were reports of roads and bridges being damaged in eastern Oregon, as well as minor flooding along the Snake River in eastern Washington and north-central Idaho and the Yellowstone in south-central Montana.
The Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security on Tuesday declared disaster emergencies in three counties impacted by severe weather and flooding.