The US Army Corps of Engineers widened the opening at the Libby dam on Monday to prevent flood damage. Tuesday’s rainstorm in Lincoln County was expected to add up to 1.5 inches of rain to the Kootenai River Basin.

Current output at the dam is 40,000 cubic feet per second. Corps engineers say snowmelt coming in from Canada is also working to increase water levels.

“As we saw the additional rainfall come in, expected for Tuesday, we decided, well, ‘Let’s release a little more and make sure we have enough storage in the reservoir’, ” said Operations Project Manager Ken Swanda.

The Corps will be keeping an eye on water levels to decide if any further action is necessary.