Floodwaters receding in Big Horn County

MANDERSON, Wyo. (AP) - Water levels receded in Big Horn County on Tuesday as ice jams on local rivers began to release.

No active flooding was reported Tuesday in Manderson. Wyoming National Guard members and some state inmate crews were still stacking sandbags along a flood barrier to help prevent any future flooding.

Sandbags had helped protect the town’s school and water treatment plant after the Big Horn and Nowood rivers flooded.

Kami Neighbors, public health response coordinator in Big Horn County, said Tuesday that the threat of flooding apparently has passed. Neighbors said she expects demobilization of crews could start as soon as Tuesday evening.

According to preliminary estimates, six homes and two businesses suffered major damage and 14 homes had minor damage in Washakie and Big Horn counties since flooding began last week. No buildings were swept away.

The Wyoming Office of Homeland Security didn’t have an immediate breakdown on where the damaged homes and businesses were in those counties.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Kelly Ruiz said National Guard members have placed 70,000 sandbags to protect properties from flooding.

According to the Wyoming Department of Corrections, 14 forestry crew inmates from the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle and about 16 inmate workers from the Wyoming Honor Farm in Riverton were helping with the flood relief effort in the Manderson area.

“The main issue we are dealing with are ice jams, some that are as big as the front of a truck, and some that are more than a mile long, and the water running underneath them,” said Brad Boylan, WHCC forestry crew supervisor.