U.S. Geological Survey<\/a>.<\/p>\nAt the same time, daily highs are expected to rise through the week into the mid-80s, according to the NWS.<\/p>\n
The Animas River usually hits a peak flow of about 4,700 cfs in early June at the height of spring runoff. The Animas River is considered to be flooding at 10,500 cfs.<\/p>\n
A flood advisory for the Los Pinos River was issued Monday morning. The river had reached 1,560 cfs Monday afternoon up from around 140 cfs on June 6.<\/p>\n
Visitors to the Los Pinos River are advised to avoid flooded areas and unstable river banks, according to NWS.<\/p>\n
The La Plata River had reached 159 cfs Monday afternoon up from 50 cfs on June 6.<\/p>\n
Late Thursday, a storm could move into the area bringing slightly lower temperatures and a chance for rain, said meteorologist Scott Stearns. But it is unlikely to lower river flows, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a saving grace by any means,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Stearns couldn\u2019t say when the flood advisory for the Animas River might be lifted.<\/p>\n
The high flows are drawing more boaters than in previous years and more people are calling for help from first responders, said Nick Knowlton, a firefighter and instructor with Durango Fire Protection District\u2019s swiftwater rescue team.<\/p>\n
The force of the water is causing some problems for boaters, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe water can overtake you and cause your craft to get stuck on an island or get stuck on debris,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The cold temperature of the water can also present a danger, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing environmental emergencies more than injury,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
High waters are bringing down large amounts of debris, including large trees that can injure boaters, he said.<\/p>\n
Existing log jams are getting worse and risk from debris is likely to persist throughout the summer, he said.<\/p>\n
Durango Fire is not advising boaters against floating the river at any volume, but it does advise boaters to wear helmets, life jackets and other protective gear.<\/p>\n
mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"temperature, debris pose risk to boaters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[304,1497,28,3762,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animas-river","tag-flood","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-river","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64129"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}