Wacky weather clears roads, floods businesses

An unexpected thaw and a few days of rain last week conspired to create a bad situation in downtown Bigfork and on gravel roads around the county.

While main thoroughfares were washed clean of snow and ice by the rain, side streets and gravel roads were turned into slushy, water-filled skating rinks. A county snow plow overturned on Labrant Road north of Bigfork because of the slick conditions and a few downtown businesses experienced some flooding as water backed up on Electric Avenue with nowhere to go.

Last week National Weather Service Meteorologist Peter Felsch warned of possible flooding because so many storm drains would be clogged with ice, which is largely what happened here.

Electric Avenue Gifts and Reicke’s Bayside Gallery both experienced water seeping through the walls below street level as stormwater runoff leaked through cracks in the street and sidewalk.

Gary Reicke was shoveling snow and ice from the back entrance to Electric Avenue Gifts last Wednesday, trying to keep water from seeping through the sandbags stacked at the door. Reicke and others had already laid sandbags across the two storefronts on Electric to help stem the flow of water.

Bob Keenan, who owns the building that houses Electric Avenue Gifts, said that similar flooding has happened occasionally when too much water gets built up in front of the store.

The weather service is calling for mostly clear weather for the end of this week and the weekend with patchy fog and highs in the upper 20s to low 30s and overnight lows dipping into the teens.