After pumping 6 million gallons of water out of a temporary pond that flooded the lower level of a Creston home, the owners still are looking at an enormous amount of water threatening the house’s second story and the other building on their property.

Randy Beavers, his sons and his mother own and live in two buildings on Bachelor Grade. Each is a two-story unit. Two weeks ago a giant pond formed and flooded the lower level of one house, where Jessie and Ryan Beavers live.

The family was able to remove everything from that house before water damaged it. But now with water lapping at the sides of the structure, the second-level apartment is in danger. Water is within 12 inches of the second story.

Randy Beavers hired Sandry Construction of Kalispell to pump the water out to protect his property. But the process has proven slower than expected, he said. On Monday morning Beavers had expected the pumping to be finished by the end of the day.

They started pumping at 10 a.m. Monday and had dropped the depth of the pond by 4 inches at 5:30 p.m. “The pumping is buying us time and keeping the water at bay,” he said.

But, at $1,500 a day, Beavers doesn’t know if he can afford to keep the contractor on site long enough to empty the pond.

“The guy told me he’s not going to let me lose my house, though,” Beavers said.

Most of the water is groundwater, he said, but Monday’s rain added to the volume in the pond. Beavers estimated the water level has been increasing by 7 1/2 inches a day. 

Randy Beavers bought the property 10 years ago. Five years ago, a similar water situation occurred and the lower-level apartment was flooded with 2 1/2 feet of water. After that, he built a dike and took other precautionary measures, all of which failed this year.

He now is trying to figure out how to install a pump system of some sort to prevent future flooding.