bjbj The flood event that we just had here has been really significant, this has never
happened before, not to this extent here. We actually had about seven inches of rain
that came down and it raised the White River up to the point that it overflowed its banks.
Places we were standing a couple of minutes before were already covered in water, I guess
that was the scariest part, just not knowing when it was going to stop or how fast it was
going to keep coming. Water backed up through our drainage lines going to each of our circular
pools and caused all of the pools to actually overflow. The water level got above the tanks,
we were destined to lose fish, but we had to minimize that as much as possible. Our
lower pools, the fish were able to swim freely between the ponds and we ended up with different
year classes of salmon mixed together. We had salmon in with some lake trout, we had
lake trout in with some salmon, just a general total mess! The Main building was spared,
the water just got to the entrance to the main building and that s a huge thing. The
rest of the outbuildings all have damage. Some of them have several feet of mud in them.
We ve got pump issues, we ve got mechanical issues, we got stuff spread from one end of
the hatchery to the other that we are going to have to pick up, put back, find, some is
buried in the mud. So, there is a lot of cleaning to do, a lot of, obviously a lot of materials
and some equipment that was inside, we ll have to see what damage was done to them.
We just tried to help out the interns, this is their housing right here behind me here.
We had waders on, wading through chest-deep, waist-deep water trying to get as much as
their stuff out of there as we could before it got taken over. So yeah, I was thankful
the hatchery was still here! I was thankful that we haven t lost more than we did. We
ve always been a disease-free facility, now we ve had river water in here, we re going
to have to probably disinfect the whole facility here so that we can be comfortable with the
fact that we have good water, we have a good place to put it and we don t have to worry
about disease issues. So the next several weeks we re going to do lots of monitoring,
a lot of careful checking of the fish, sending samples out to our disease lab and so forth.
It is not uncommon after an event like this for fish to breakout with a disease. We do
have a couple of new techniques that weren t around twenty five years ago that allow
us to pickup diseases earlier than we were in the past. So, hopefully if anything s going
to show up on the fish we ll be able to catch that sooner and not have that problem. We
re still raising fish and we still have the capability to do that, but there is a lot
of work to do. Fortunately, I think we saved a good part of the fish that we had here on
the facility and I credit the whole crew for getting in here and responding to it and putting
in the added extra effort to try and get everything under control.
Yeah, its been a big devastation, I ve been through big floods in 73 , 98 and a couple
of minor ones in-between, but this was the second highest flood on record for this river,
the last time was in 1927, so it s approaching your 100 year flood mark and it was a doozy!
Yeah, I think it s going to be I think, quite a long process to get everything back to normal
here. But, hopefully we ll get everything back up and running and be back in full production
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EMF kn14 " WMFC " WMFC " WMFC WMFC Cambria The flood evente that we just had here has
been really significant, this has never happened before, not to this extent here. We actually
had about seven inches of rain that came down and it raised the White River up to the point
that it overflowed its banks. Places we were standing a couple of minutes before were already
covered in water, I guess that was the scariest part, just not knowing when it was going to
stop or how fast it w as going to keep coming. Water backed up through our drainage u lines
going to each of our ci rcular pools and caused all of the pools to actually overflow. The
water level got above the tanks, we were destined to lose fish, but we had to minimize that
as much as possible.n Our lower pools, the fish were able to swim freely between the
ponds and we ended up with different year classes of salmon mixed together. We hade
salmon in with some lake trout, we had r lake trout in with some salmon, just a general
total mess! The Main building was spared, the water just got t o the entrance to the
main building and that s a huge thing. The rest of the outbuildings all have damage.
Some of them h ave several feet of mud in them. l ve got pump issues, we ve got mechanical
issues, we got stuff spread from one end of the hatchery to the other that we are going
to have to pick up, t put back, find, some is buried in the mud. S there is a lot of
cleaning to do, a lot of, obviously a lot of materials and r some d equipment that was
inside, we ll have to see what damage was done to them. W e just tried to help out the
interns, this is their housing right here b ehind me here. We had waders on , wading
through chest deep, wa deep water trying to get as much as their stuff out of there as
we could before it got taken over. So yeah, I was thane kful the hatchery was still here!
I was thankful that we o haven t lost more than we did. ve always been a diseasei free
facility, now we ve s had river water in here, we re going to have to probably disinfect
the whole facility here so that we can be comfo rtable with the fact that we have good
water, we have a good place to put it and we don t have to worry about disease issues.
So the next several weeks we re going to do lots of monitoring, a lot of careful checking
of the fish, sending samples out to our l disease lab and so forth. It is not uncommon
after v an event x like this for fish to breakout with a disease. We do have a couple of new
techniques that weren t around twenty five years ago that allow us to pickup diseases
earlier than we were in the past. So , hopefully if anything s going to show up on the fish
we ll be able to catch that sooner and not have that problem. We re e still raising fish
and we still have the capability to do that, but there is a lot of work to do. Fortunately,
I think we saved a goo d part of the fish that we had here on the S facility and I credit
the whole crew for getting in here and responding to it and putting in the added extra effort
to try and get everything under control. Yeah, its been a big devastation, I ve been through
big floods in 73 , 9 and a couple of minor p ones inr between, but this was the second
highest flood on record for this river, the last time was in 1927, so it s approaching
your 100 year flood mark and it was a i doozy! Yeah, I think it s going to be I think, uite
a long process to get everything back to normal here. But, h opefully we ll get everything
back up and running and be r back in full production here in the near future "System
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