A River Runs Through It

Or more like 30+ rivers. We've been preoccupied with our weather situation again. It seems as though we haven't gotten a break since the first snow in mid-December! The only sunny, clear day I can remember was Friday, 12/19. We had 8" of snow and it was in the 20's. This past week the rains returned, in the form of what is known on the west coast as a "Pineapple Express", which is a storm system that flows up from tropical Hawai'i and soaks us for days with nonstop, teeming rain. It's generally mild and sometimes preceeded by a little bit of wind. It's trademark is the huge amount of rain that gets dumped on us. This time, the rain fell on large quantities of snow, and compounded the flooding problem.

The rivers that flooded, to name a few, are: Satsop, Snohomish, Skykomish, Puyallup, Skagit, Cedar, Carbon, Wynoochee, Stillaguamish, Pilchuck, Nisqually, Skookumchuck, Deschutes, Chehalis, Tolt, Nooksack, Newaukum, White & Wallace. Scores of offshoot creeks also overflowed their banks. From Canada to Oregon, Western Washington was under water for a few days last week.

To add insult to injury, the Army Corp of Engineers had to release water from the Mud Mountain Dam down the White River, and they forgot to inform the City of Pacific, so no one saw it coming. It's a mess of mud and debris. People are pissed and I don't blame them.

No one was exempt from this storm. All of the east/west passes through the Cascades were closed because of avalanches and mudslides. People were stranded on either side of the mountains. I-5, the major interstate that runs 1,380 miles from Mexico to Canada, was shut down for 20 miles because the Chehalis River was over the road.

This is a pic of a home in Fall City, up north, on Rte. 202. King County



Flooded Sumner Meadow Golf Links. Bonney Lake is on top of that hill above the Links. Pierce County
124th Street Bridge which spans the Snoqualmie River under normal circumstances. The River flooded it. King County

Lt. Governor Brad Owen flies over flooded Centralia, which is south, between Olympia & Oregon. Lewis County

Chehalis, WA, near Centralia. Lewis County

I-5 in Chehalis. Lewis County. Having I-5 closed costs companies millions and millions of dollars in lost revenue b/c the freight can't move. The truckers don't get paid unless they are hauling. This flood is the LAST thing our local economy needed.

All train service was canceled because the tracks in Chehalis were flooded. There was no north/south Amtrak or freight service for a few days. Lewis County

I-5, Chehalis. Lewis County

Here's an aerial view of River Road, the Puyallup River and the flooded farmland on the other side of River Road. This is the road I have taken to get to/from work every day for the past 8 years. It wasn't closed, but the river was nearly road level when I drove home. Traffic was awful b/c Levee Road on the other side of the river was closed. Pierce County

River Road at the 66th Street Bridge, Puyallup. I pass this bridge every day. Pierce County

Puyallup. Pierce County

Puyallup River. Pierce County

Intersection of Hwy. 203 & the Woodinville-Duvall Road, in Duvall. King County

Lots of flooding way up north, in Ferndale, which is about 35 miles from the Canadian border.

Whatcom County

Snoqualmie Falls is almost unrecognizable. King County

The valley town of Orting, which is below Bonney Lake, was advised to evacuate, and quickly. They got hit hard when the Puyallup crested after a Pineapple Express storm in December, 2007, so more people were motivated to leave this time. Pierce County

Slide on Hwy. 20, the North Cascades Highway. Whatcom County

Downtown Snoqualmie. King County

Tolt River over the road in Carnation. King County

Wallace River in Gold Bar. Snohomish County

Stanwood. Snohomish County

This slide happened near the ski slopes at Hyak, up on Snoqualmie Pass. It stopped short of I-90 but the highway was closed anyway. Kittitas County

And finally, I couldn't get home my normal route, Highway 410 in Sumner, because of water over the road. This particular stretch always floods a bit and has very bad drainage. I had to go up to Auburn and hope that the rivers in that area (Stuck & White) hadn't flooded the roads. Fortunately they weren't that high yet and I was able to get across and then up the hill to Bonney Lake, the back way.

I do love the rain, but I think this is the first time in my life that I've hoped it stays dry for awhile.

Photos courtesy of MyNorthwest.com and KOMOTV.com