IGNACIO – After a week of strong flows, the Los Pinos River near Ignacio looks like it’s slowing down.
Over the last 10 days, the river has been running high and fast, according to a measuring station north of town, and flood advisories were in effect for several days last week. The water level began to drop Sunday, and as of Tuesday, Ignacio police said there was no cause for concern.
“We’re going to monitor the situation, but it’s not an impending threat,” Sgt. Wes Crume said.
The area still has flood potential, according to SnoFlo, a snow report and water data site. From Sunday to Tuesday, the streamflow dropped from 1,370 to 871 cubic feet per second, which is still about 150% above the season average. The gauge height also dropped from 5.5 feet, where it was hovering for almost a week, to Tuesday’s height at 4.7 feet.
Meadowbrook Mobile Home Park is one of the town’s more vulnerable locations for flooding from the Los Pinos River. At Monday’s Ignacio Town Board meeting, Police Chief Kirk Phillips said that last week the water level was about a foot below the top of the berm, a human-made mound designed to reduce the risk of flooding between the mobile homes and the river. The park sits below the floodplain, so they pre-emptively discussed a plan with Meadowbrook management in case the water kept rising.
“We’re always concerned if the river were to overflow there, so we do checks on it all the time,” Crume said.
Although the river was flowing at a high rate last week, the park didn’t have any restrictions or issues with flooding, said Clark Craig, the park’s co-owner and manager.
Several residents, including Karmon Kennington who can see and hear the river from her doorstep, said they weren’t concerned about flooding. “I feel pretty comfortable right now,” Kennington said.
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