Laramie River at Flood Stage from Mountain Snow Melt [PHOTOS]

The Laramie River reached flood stage on Sunday as the warm weekend resulted in melting snowpack from the Snowy Range mountains. Laramie is under a flood warning until further notice. The National Weather Service considers flood stage at Laramie to be 5.0 feet and is predicting the Laramie River will continue to swell over the next week.

Last year the river peaked on June 14th with a crest of 6.6 feet. The City of Laramie says 17,000 sandbags with stockpiles of sand have been allocated to volunteer departments. Albany County has been issued the maximum 50,000 sandbags it can acquire from the Office of Homeland Security in Cheyenne before a disaster declaration is made by county commissioners.

Several dikes were built up in advance of the anticipated flooding based on where the problem areas were in 2010 and the street department has a number of bags prefilled for deployment and use at this time. For now, Albany County Public Health Emergency Response Coordinator, Beth Young, is organizing her growing list of volunteers so they can move into action should it be needed.

If you would like to volunteer, contact Beth at byoung@co.albany.wy.us. For instant flood updates, call the Information Hotline at 721-5300.

Information from the NOAA regarding the flood situation can be found here.