ROAD WORRIERS

HAYDEN LAKE - Two vehicles were nearly swallowed and three people were injured early Thursday morning after a section of Rimrock Road washed out, leaving a 10-foot gap in the pavement.

A culvert beneath the road failed due to heavy runoff, rupturing a water main and washing out the road from ditch to ditch and leaving an 8-foot-deep trench, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the washout near the intersection of York Court near Hayden Lake just after 3 a.m. to find a car and a van, both nose-down in the trench.

Clifton McMahon, 24, Hayden, was headed southbound in a Toyota Camry when he drove into the hole. A short time later, a northbound Toyota Sienna van driven by 31-year-old Melissa Ehrmantraut of Post Falls went into the hole.

The drivers and 47-year-old Anthony Moreno of Coeur d'Alene - a passenger in the van - were taken to Kootenai Health and treated for injuries. McMahon remained hospitalized in good condition Thursday afternoon. Ehrmantraut and Moreno were treated and released, according to Kootenai Health spokeswoman Becky Orchard.

Rapid runoffs, melting snow and frost heaves wreaked havoc on roads throughout Kootenai County, sending road crews scrambling to repair washouts, clear drains, patch potholes and place signs alerting drivers of hazards.

As the level of the Coeur d'Alene River and Lake Coeur d'Alene rose, Avista Utilities opened the north spillway of the Spokane River dam at Post Falls to help prevent flooding. Avista Communication Manager Mary Tyrie said the south spillway will be opened today in case the lake reaches summer levels - 2,128 feet - during the weekend.

The washout on Rimrock Road left 150 residents in the area without water and, as repairs were being made, the sheriff's office said gas and telephone service could be disrupted.

Lakes Highway District Director Eric Stanley said the district was hoping the road would reopen late today or Saturday. Until then, Stanley said drivers would have to take a short detour.

"I don't know if it's going to be a big inconvenience other than for the postal service, emergency workers and school buses," Stanley said.

The Idaho Transportation Department worked to repair two major potholes on Interstate 90 - one beneath the Fourth Street overpass in Coeur d'Alene and the other to the east near Wolf Lodge.

"It has just been a nightmare," said Scott Lickfold, ITD's special crew foreman. He described the pothole near the Fourth Street overpass as being twice as large as a computer screen and the one at Wolf Lodge as even larger. Attempts to repair the potholes using cold patch mix have been in vain because of the wet weather.

"It just pops back out," Lickfold said.

Lickfold said the weather needs to warm before a permanent repair can be attempted.

The transportation department has also been battling standing water on "just about every state road we have," he said.

"The frost was so deep into the ground," he said. "The water really has no place to go."