OROFINO - Inmate crews from Idaho Correctional Institution in Orofino continued sandbagging Tuesday afternoon along a fast and high Clearwater River.

The National Weather Service had predicted a rise up to 18 feet in Orofino. Incident Commander Chris Goetz said they were ready for it, but it didn't happen.

Chief Deputy Chris Goetz, Clearwater County Sheriff's Office, "It's actually dropped a little bit today. We feel pretty fortunate that everything that we've done is holding so far. We're pretty happy with how the conditions have been for us."

Tuesday morning the river was at 16.58 feet. Goetz said that could be attributed to the lower temperatures, and the fact that there's not as much snow to melt.

Goetz said they were planning on wrapping up the sandbagging Tuesday.

In a press release issued by Clearwater County Tuesday morning, officials said there wasn’t any change with regard to the threat to private homes that were sandbagged. The Sheriff's Office said, thanks to the sandbagging and the Dworshak Dam, everything was under control.

“Years past if we didn't have the dam, this water would have backed up and Orofino would be under water, at least at the lowest elevation,” said Goetz. “With the dam there, they've got it cut down to real low flows, they're able to store it behind the dam. And that's helped to main river to just kind of flow down towards Lewiston."

Orofino City Park was still closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic Tuesday. Officials are monitoring the fair exhibit building but said it wasn’t threatened. Clearwater County Emergency Manager Don Gardner said he considered it a plateau of flood events, and they expected to be cleaning up the sandbags in another week.

"We're going to have the inmates out here another hour or two,” Goetz said. “They'll be available if needed, but right now everything's holding for us, so I don't see that we're going to need them."

The National Weather Service issued a statement Tuesday afternoon predicting that the river would rise again Wednesday morning, reaching a flood stage of 17.2 feet by Wednesday night. Flood stage at Orofino is 17 feet.