It's been 14 years since the last widespread flooding in Missoula County. Major wildfires tend to happen every few summers at least, Lounsbury said. But you can expect pipeline breaks every construction season. It doesn't take much propane or liquid gas on the ground to cause a hazardous material disaster, Lounsbury said.

Even as streams rise before our eyes this week, Missoula itself doesn't appear to be in for an epic flood year. On Wednesday, the advanced hydrologic prediction service on the National Weather Service website indicated just a 10-percent chance the Clark Fork River at Missoula reaching 30,000 cubic feet per second, or slightly less than a 50-year flood.

"We're a little bit different here than, say, Kalispell or the Hi-Line where they've got quite a bit of snow packed up," said Todd Klietz, Missoula's floodplain administrator.

The county's last really big flood was in 1908, when bridges and homes were washed downstream and railroads were wiped out. There was an estimated 48,000 cubic feet of water per second at the Milltown Dam. The closest flow since was 33,080 cfs in 1975.