Bigfork-area residents are organizing to respond to potential flooding, with a community meeting planned Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Bigfork Elementary School cafeteria.

“A group of Bigfork citizens have realized that this is a good time to create a Bigfork community emergency organization to help for the first three or four days, if there is a flood,” said Dr. Bruce Nelson, who is helping organize Thursday’s meeting. “This group will precede and help assist the Red Cross and other government emergency groups.”

Churches and service clubs are planning to take on areas of responsibility, including preparing sandbags in advance, to respond to flood threats.

The group suggests all communities where there might be flooding to start now to be prepared, Nelson said in an e-mail.

An unusually high snowpack across Northwest Montana has prompted the National Weather Service to forecast flooding on most of the area’s major rivers and streams. However, high water has been delayed because of continued low temperatures.

Mountain snowpack levels in the Flathead River Basin rose to 150 percent of average on Monday after weekend snowstorms that dropped a foot of new snow in places such as the Essex/Marias Pass area.

The Weather Service does not anticipate the peak river runoff to get under way until late May or early June.

Thursday’s meeting will be attended by Steve Stanley, director of the Lake County Office of Emergency Management, along with other emergency response personnel.

Another meeting is planned April 26 at 6 p.m. in the Bigfork High School music room to teach people how to prepare a 72-hour food pack for $20.