KUNA, Idaho — Flooding is an annual concern in Idaho due to the state’s mountainous terrain and the potential for rain-on-snow events, particularly in the Treasure Valley with the Boise River.
“Because of the mountains that we have, the great topography. We'll have snow, rain on snow, potential flooding events, especially here in the Treasure Valley with the Boise River,” said Susan Cleverley, Mitigation Section Chief for the Idaho Office of Emergency Management.
Flood Awareness Week 2025 has reached the students at Kuna’s Boys & Girls Club, introducing the newest generation of Idahoans to the natural occurrences and emergency preparedness required for living in the Gem State.
The initiative includes interactive, STEM-focused activities, such as drawings that depict potential flooding scenarios. One fourth-grader, Julianna, described her creative project: “There’s going to be the dam that tries to stop the water, but then the water is going to start overflowing, and then I'm going to draw, like, coming down by the cars and some of the cars like lifting up from the water.”
State agencies, including the Idaho Office of Emergency Management, Idaho Power, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, have been involved in educating these students.
Erin Whorton, a water supply specialist with the NRCS, provided insights into what Idahoans can expect this season. “We’ve had a spectacular winter season. The Boise snowpack is at 125% normal as of today and most of our other basins are above normal, which means there’s a lot of water in the mountains that need to be managed safely to prevent flooding,” Whorton said.
Anticipating a warm and dry spring, Whorton noted that the increased speed of mountain snowmelt requires proactive flood mitigation efforts.
“Boise, in the Boise Reservoir System, they’ve already started flood risk management operations. They started those on March 13. And so they’re already planning on how much snow is in the mountains. They’re seeing that we have this huge snowpack, and they’re making space for that snowpack right now. So they’ve already begun worrying about floods and working on preventing floods,” she added.
