Central Oregon prepares for stepped-up ‘big melt’

In what’s already been one of the snowiest Central Oregon winters in decades, we have quite the impressive snowpack, not to mention a lot of snow still in Bend and other cities.

“Currently in the upper basin, we’re storing about 10,000 acre-feet more water than we were at this time last year,” Deschutes Basin Watermaster Jeremy Giffin said Friday.

Few of the sandbags given out as a precaution a couple of weeks ago have been pressed into service. But if the warm-up happens too fast, we still could be in for some flooding — and it could be this weekend.

“With the warm-up over the next couple days and the large amount of snowpack at the lower elevations, there is a potential for flooding,” Giffin explained.

But we may be saved by the slow warm-up so far and the current dry spell we’re seeing.

“Without any warm precipitation coming in for the next couple days, I really don’t anticipate area rivers and streams to flood,” Giffin said. “We may have some localized, urbanized flooding within the city of Bend, though.”

But Bend and other agencies are continuing to clear their catch basins, even though some can still be a little tricky to navigate.

The bigger concern is in residential neighborhoods, where many key areas still haven’t been cleared.

“There’s still blocked storm drains,” said Bend Utility Operations Manager Shannon Ostendorff. “So those would be areas that could potentially have some ponding in the street or some flooding.”

A year ago, much of Central Oregon was in what officials called a moderate drought, but at this point, we’re faring much better. Much depends on what precipitation the rest of the winter brings.