WILLOW CREEK — A rain-on-snow weather event on December 15–16 caused the Willow River to jump its banks, flooding the lower end of Main Street and the Thorne’s Bend area under two feet of water.
Three days of unseasonably warm temperatures — reaching the mid-50s — melted a foot of standing snow, releasing the equivalent of three inches of rain into the watershed in less than 48 hours. The ice-choked river could not handle the runoff.
“The river rose faster than I’ve ever seen it,” said Dale Fournier Sr., the town’s fire chief. “By midnight on the 16th, the water was across Main Street at the bridge. By dawn, it was lapping at the steps of the Gazette building.”
The Gazette photographed the flood from its second-floor window, capturing the surreal image of Main Street transformed into a brown lake. The General Store, which sits on slightly higher ground, escaped flooding, but its basement took on six inches of water.
The mill was forced to shut down for two days when the mill race backed up. The saw carriage was under three inches of water, but the machinery was not damaged.
“Flooding on this scale is rare in Willow Creek,” the Gazette noted. “The Willow River is a modest stream, and it usually behaves itself. But when the conditions are right — a deep snowpack, a sudden thaw, and a river still choked with ice — the water has nowhere to go but over its banks.”
The Thorne’s Bend area, where the old shipyard once operated, was the hardest hit. The water rose to within inches of the granite historical marker installed in 1953. “The bend has always been the river’s natural floodplain,” noted Ezra Homan, who owns land along the upper reach. “You build there, you’re building in the river’s living room.”