UNION — Little Creek is belying its name in Union, causing big problems for residents in homes along East Bryan Street.

Water is now surrounding and threatening four homes on East Bryan Street after Little Creek, swollen by melting snow, jumped its banks. For much of Wednesday and Thursday, residents of these homes have not been able to leave their house without walking through close to two feet of water.

The presence of threatening water is taking a toll on people, including East Bryan Street resident Heather Wright.

“It is very scary,” Wright said.

Denny Langford agrees, noting that he has been a bundle of anxiety this week.

“I can’t eat, not even a little bit,” he said.

Langford said he gets up two or three times a night to check on the floodwater surrounding his home. He and other East Bryan Street residents are keeping water out of their homes with the help of sandbags. They have also received a huge boost from the City of Union, whose staff has been using backhoes and other equipment to divert water in Little Creek to places like open fields.

“Without the city, we would all be in terrible trouble,” Langford said.

Gerald Kordosky is among the street’s residents hit hardest by the flooding. Water has not penetrated Kordosky’s home but it did get into several structures not connected to his house, including his canning room, which on Thursday had at least a foot of standing water.

Much of Kordosky’s expansive backyard was engulfed by water Thursday afternoon.

“I call it ‘Lake Louise,’ Kordosky said. “I could sail a boat on it.”

East Bryan Street has been closed to traffic for much of this week, but that has not prevented a number of people from driving by.

“If we charged $1 a car, we could make a lot of money,” Langford said.

City of Union Public Works Director Rod McKee said that one of the reasons for the flooding is that Little Creek has about a foot of ice along its bottom.

“This is taking up much of its capacity,” McKee said.

McKee and other City of Union staff members have been working to remove ice and debris from Little Creek to reduce the amount of water flowing over its banks. Combined with the digging of diversion channels, it helped the floodwaters begin to recede Thursday afternoon.

Outside of Union, the only place hit by flooding in Union County Thursday was Elgin, where the Foster Group mobile home park was threatened by floodwater. Fortunately, none of the Foster Group homes, located on the north edge of Elgin, were damaged by flooding. City of Elgin Administrator Brock Eckstein credits the quick response of his staff with these homes escaping unscathed.

“We got on it fast,” Eckstein said.

He said that the use of sandbags and efforts to unclog surrounding ditches played important roles in protecting the homes.

“We have cleared out ditches so that the water will flow the right way,” Eckstein said.

North Powder Mayor Bonita Hebert said that her community has so far escaped flooding because two weeks ago, the Oregon Department of Transportation cleared the city’s main street of snow and hauled it to another location. This work is paying dividends now because it opened up major drains, giving the melting snow somewhere to go, she said.