Northwest

<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Ranch House BBQ co-owner Melanie Tapia gets a hug from Ginny Wallace, who stopped by to check on them Monday after a wall of mud from nearby Kennedy Creek destroyed the popular Highway 8 restaurant near Olympia. Mike Salisbury / The Chronicle  (click to enlarge) Gary Dorning of Adna carries a young girl through flood waters as the Chehalis River inundates Highway 6 west of Adna on Monday. The girl and her brother were rescued by jet ski as the rest of the family remained on the rooftop of their rural Lewis County home.   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Rivers crest as officials plan for evening commute 12/4/07 • Snohomish County, state officials assess damage 12/4/07   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Tuesday, December 4, 2007 I-5 closed as storm blasts SW Washington; two die By Rachel La Corte Associated Press OLYMPIA -- Major flooding and high winds that downed trees and knocked out power left two people dead and closed I-5 in southwestern Washington, officials said Monday. Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency in response to the brutal winter storm that hit Western Washington, and said "we haven't seen the worst yet." "It hasn't peaked," Gregoire said Monday afternoon. "We are concerned with what Mother Nature has in store for us." Most of the Olympic Peninsula, Kitsap County and southwest Washington were hit particularly hard by the storm. Gregoire said some 80,000 people had lost electric power across Western Washington. Rescue helicopters from the Coast Guard and the Navy were dispatched to rescue people stranded at their homes because of heavy winds and flooding, officials said. About 150 people were stranded at some point Monday across the region, Gregoire said, with about half of them reported rescued by early Monday evening. Many of those rescues were conducted by boat. Four hikers stranded by harsh weather also were rescued from the Snoqualmie Pass area, officials said. All lanes of I-5 near Centralia, the main route between Seattle and Portland, Ore., were closed because of flooding. When the Chehalis River crests Tuesday, its expected peak of nearly 75 feet would put the surface of I-5 under about 5 feet of water, state Department of Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said. The highway agency also said the closure could last at least 36 hours, although Hammond said the length of the closure was tough to predict. Hammond noted that in 1996, the last time the freeway was shut down completely due to flooding in the area, it was closed for about four days. In Lewis County, where the swollen Chehalis River closed the freeway, emergency crews were working well after sundown to monitor and rescue people trapped at their homes. Boats were used throughout the day, with GPS-equipped helicopters taking on a bigger role after dark -- in some cases plucking people from the roof of a house, sheriff's Detective Matt Wallace said. "We're still plugging away. We'll be going all night," Wallace said. "As long as people need help, we're going to get them out." Nevertheless, no fatalities were reported in the county and one case of hypothermia was the only notable injury, Wallace said. Mudslides halted Amtrak passenger train service between Portland and Vancouver, B.C. Farther east, snowslides temporarily closed the major Cascade Mountain passes carrying traffic on I-90 and U.S. 2. Both passes were reopened Monday evening. Much of Grays Harbor County, on the southern Washington coast, was without electricity. Roads leading into the county's population centers were cut off for most of the day, but one patched-together route from Olympia to Ocean Shores was finally punched through by Monday evening. Grays Harbor County sheriff's Detective Ed McGowan, the county's incident commander for the storm, confirmed the two deaths. One man in Aberdeen died when a tree fell on him as he was trying to clear another downed tree; the other person died from an undetermined medical problem after power was lost, McGowan said. The National Weather Service said 3 to 6 inches of rain had fallen across much of Western Washington. The 24-hour rain total for Bremerton was 10.78 inches, meteorologist Chris Burke said Monday evening. "Washingtonians have endured quite the weekend," Gregoire said, adding that the danger from floods was not likely to subside until Thursday. Her emergency declaration puts thousands of National Guard troops on standby if local officials need help. Lewis County urged residents in flooded areas to evacuate. Several shelters were opened. Winds gusted to 81 mph in Hoquiam, in Grays Harbor County, early Monday before the National Weather Service line went down. A weather spotter reported winds of 60 mph gusting to 90 mph at 5 a.m. at Clallam Bay on the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula. The Elwha River on the northern Olympic Peninsula was expected to flood at record levels. In Olympia, the rain turned a normally small creek into a roiling, muddy surge of water that tore through a wall at the Ranch House BBQ. Tables and booths were strewn across the street, and a storage shed was pushed about 300 feet away. Christy Romo, who lives just up the hill from the restaurant, said she could hear the floodwaters coming and started packing before the first floor of her cabin was inundated. "I knew I wouldn't have much time," Romo said. "I heard a bang, and then saw the water rising quickly."

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