In early June of 1964 the Flathead Valley experienced a devastating, once-in-a-lifetime flood - as heavy rains made the river rise to a record breaking high.
The new Western Montana Hazard Mitigation Plan found close to 10 percent of Flathead County’s population lives in areas that are prone to smaller floods. Even more homes are at risk should a flood like the one in 1964 happen again.
“If it's 10 percent lives in the 100 year flood plain,” Thompson said. “How many live in the 500 year floodplain?”.
Steve Thompson is with Climate Smart Glacier Country. It’s one of the groups that partnered with local governments, state agencies and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to map where a megaflood would go, and how to prepare.
“If we as a community think and work toward envisioning and preparing for that scenario and trying to reduce our risk through being prepared,” Thompson said. “We can also reduce our flood insurance premiums.”
Major flood events are becoming increasingly likely under human-caused climate change. Thompson says the current mitigation plan doesn’t address that risk, and there’s a need to update modeling to account for climate change.
The partnership had been awarded federal funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency. But the Trump Administration cancelled that funding. A megaflood like 1964’s would most heavily impact lower income communities along the main stem of the Flathead River in the Evergreen area, and parts of Kalispell.
“The people that live in these low lying areas tend to be older, on more of a fixed income, and they're not the they're not the wealthy people that are moving into the Flathead,” said Thompson.
Thompson says because the project lost federal funding, the group will likely narrow its focus. With the little non-federal funding they do have, they plan to map high risk areas along the main stem of the Flathead River.
He also hopes to see some of that used for outreach to help community readiness, and resilience.
