1964 Flood Article

[llholmes1948]

Link to an artilce in the Daily Interlake on the 1964 Flood which had a serious impact on the Park and a devastating impact on the Blackfeet Reservation:

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/loca ... 002e0.html

Interesting to read that despite the damage the Sun Road opened on June 30 which may well be earlier than it will open this year.

[July Guy]

Not to mention Columbia Falls, Evergreen and Kalispell..

I got my mom to telling stories of the flood on the phone today. Since my grandparent's house didn't flood, he and my mom and my aunt went around helping people move their belongings to higher ground. My grandfather was a salesman, and one of his clients was Snappys sporting goods store. The owners lived in a house behind the store. So they went over to help in a rowboat! They stopped by to help some other friends in Evergreen too. And they paddled around Woodland Park (city park in Kalispell) also, which was under water as well. Everyone had to get shots because the ground water was contaminated. If you are on the West Glacier bridge, going into the park look to the left. There used to be a bunch of housed on that hillside, that hillside is not there anymore (nor the houses!).

[orin]

I was 10 years old and growing up in Conrad MT when the flood roared through. We got more rain in a couple of days than we usually got all year. My father headed out during the height of the rain to help sandbag. Later that summer we made a couple of camping trips to Glacier. I was most impressed by the piles of debris in the fields along the major creeks draining onto the plains from the mountains. Especially where Birch creek and Two Medicine River ( broken dams) crossed US89 there were massive piles of brush with a few buildings thrown in for good measure. It was decades before all that debris disappeared from the landscape.

Hopefully no similar storm will fall on this years heavy snowpack.

[mattB]

I was 7 years old that year and we lived in Eureka and drove over to visit relatives in Great Falls and go to the State Fair. I remember driving Highway 2 and seeing a metal bridge all broken twisted up in a huge log jam. And I also remember being amazed at the debris piles out on the prairie east of the park going towards Browning. This was probably in July, so several weeks after the flood, and all was dry by then, but I remember being amazed at all the piles of logs and brush and wood out on the prairie and being totally confused about how it could have gotten there!

[k2kelley]

This week, Spokane anyway, high 60's and low 70's with rain and thunderstorms. Assuming this will move into the park, here comes the water.........