Idaho Highway 36 remains closed due to mudslides
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PRESTON — Idaho Highway 36 suffered multiple mudslides on Tuesday and the road remains closed until further notice.
The highway initially closed around 6:30 p.m. on April 11 when a mudslide happened between Ovid and Preston. Temperatures continued to warm, and two more mudslides occurred in the area.
Justin Smith with the Idaho Transportation Department says he isn’t sure when the road will be cleared and available for public use again.
“Our crews are working as hard and as fast as possible, but there’s no guarantee that we’re gonna have it at this time and this day,” Smith said.
The crews working on the road are trying to give the water and mud somewhere to flow so the roads can be cleared. They were seeing knee deep water in some places, according to Smith, and the local canal company is working to clear out ditches to try and help the water move through.
“There’s a lot of moving parts and different groups are out there working,” Smith said. “But the biggest thing is we’ve got to get that water out there so we can work on the road.”
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office issued two notices warning people to avoid that area. The notices initially called them avalanches, but Sheriff David Fryar agreed that mudslide was a more accurate term to describe it.
Besides a shed that has collapsed, Smith isn’t aware of any damaged buildings. Franklin County Ambulance services says their haven’t been any calls, so no injuries have been reported at this point.
Spring runoff poses a significant chance of flooding throughout Franklin, Caribou and Bear Lake Counties. Smith is urging people to be aware of local conditions and not drive through water running over roads.
“One of the fortunate things about rural areas (is that) people tend to understand how these things can happen and take appropriate action,” Smith said. “We ask them to continue to be patient and be aware that we’re gonna have a huge runoff this spring and we’re gonna see more and more of this in southeast Idaho.”
ITD recommends using ID Highway 34 and US-30 between Preston and Montpelier as a detour in the event of flooding.
A complete seven-day forecast is available here. The latest road conditions and closures can be found here.
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