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Report from KBCI CH2
By Michelle DeGrand
OWYHEE COUNTY -
What a way to welcome in the new year! 11 people get stranded in a
famous
Idaho ghost town when flooding washes out a road.
The Owyhee County Sheriff's Office rescued a total of 25 people this
weekend
as a result of the weather... and some could get stuck with a bill for
emergency services.
Deputies rescued 14 snowmobiles Saturday and another 11 Sunday, after
heavy
rains took out at least seven Owyhee County roadways. A New Year's trip
to
a Silver City cabin could end up being an expensive mistake for some
Melba
residents rescued by four wheeler Sunday.
The area where Sinker Creek runs through six foot culverts beneath
Sinker
Creek Road on the way to Silver City is now a deep crevasse. The
stream
collected snow melt and rain from the Owyhee Mountains and became a
raging
river, taking a ten foot stretch of the road and two of the large
culverts
with it downstream. By Sunday, the washout could only be crossed by a
front-end loader.
"I had to declare an emergency so I could use other county equipment
like
the loader and road grader," said Owyhee County Sheriff Gary Aman.
Deputies then loaded seven four wheelers into the loader's huge bucket,
and
carried them one by one across the washout, safely above the powerful
current. The move was necessary to reach eleven people stranded at
their
cabin in Silver City, nine miles beyond the washout.
During their annual holiday weekend in the snow, the six adults and five
young kids were unaware that only hundreds of feet below, it was coming
down
as rain, and filling the small creek beds in the Owyhees.
"We started in Friday morning, we hit a couple inches of snow at the
turnoff
off highway 78 and by the time we got [to Sinker Creek] there was a good
four inches of snow and we weren't breaking through with trucks so we
weren't worried, we felt pretty good about it when we started out," said
Pat
Monson, who was rescued along with his wife and three kids, his wife's
parents, and another couple with their two children.
The group asked for the county's help when they realized the road below
had
washed out badly, and they might not be able to make it through with
small
kids. However, the condition of the road as they returned to the area
on
the four wheelers with deputies astounded them.
"Jaws dropped, you know it was incredible there was a lot of ten foot
drop
offs where we had to walk around and it wasn't easy," said Monson.
His seven year old daughter had a similar reaction once she reached the
washout.
"It looked terrible today," said Morgan Monson, "When we went up there
nothing was wrong, none of this was gone, none of the water was here."
But with a little help they did make it back, and relatives from Nampa
were
waiting for them.
"Oh baby girl how are ya?" said Morgan's grandmother as she scooped the
girl
up after Morgan rode with her siblings across the creek in the loader's
bucket, "That was an adventure."
Sheriff Aman says it was an adventure that cost the county about four
hundred dollars an hour. There is, however, an Idaho law that allows
municipalities to bill rescuees if they enter areas that are posted as
off
limits. Aman says this rescue qualifies.
"This road's been closed for about a week now for reasons such as this
and
these people proceeded past the road closed sign, now they need to be
rescued," he said. But family members say it was just a case of mother
nature bringing a spring surprise in the dead of winter. They say the
family was prepared, knew the area, but just needed a little help
getting
past the washout, rather than try it themselves and possibly create a
bigger
rescue.
"These people were not in danger, they just wanted to get out of there.
This is not an issue of somebody being stupid and going off where they
don't
belong," said waiting relative Grant Danner.
"I don't think that was necessary, but sometimes that's how it goes,"
echoed
Monson.
Either way, it could prove to be a very memorable, but expensive, way to
ring in the new year.
Owyhee County Commissioners can decide to charge the group four thousand
dollars per adult, which in this case could amount to 24-thousand
dollars.
Meanwhile, deputies said it could take months to fix the Sinker Creek
washout because it is a relatively low priority roadway.
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