Rising Stilly chases all to high ground
Published 11:17 pm Wednesday, January 7, 2009
ARLINGTON — Linda Neunzig didn’t go to work on Wednesday.
Instead, she had her work cut out for her at her Schloman Road farm across the overflowing Stillaguamish River from Arlington.
A single mother of two, Neunzig got help from family and friends to move 200 sheep and lambs, 11 cows, three horses, four dogs, four cats, a clutch of chickens and a bunny.
“But no partridge in a pear tree,” said Neunzig, who tried to laugh as she stood in the rain after loading the last cows for their trip to a friend’s farm near Granite Falls.
Neunzig is used to moving her animals to higher ground and cleaning up the silt in her barns after floods. However, she’s never had to clean out her house.
“It’s 104 years old and the river’s never been inside. But if the water rises to what’s predicted tonight, I could have water in my house,” she said.
The Stillaguamish was forecast to crest in Arlington at 21.57 feet about 10 this morning. The flood of November 2006 reached 21.1 feet.
Severe flooding with deep and swift waters began to overtake numerous roads in north Snohomish County on Wednesday, as the river rose to a Phase 4.
Marine Drive, Norman Road, Boe Road, Pioneer Highway and others in the Silvana area were closed.
Highway 530 at the Lincoln Bridge next to Twin Rivers Park in Arlington was open to one lane of traffic most of the day, with state and county crews hoping to get as many drivers through before the water running over the road closed the highway Wednesday night. Burn Road and Jordan Road also were closed for much of the day.
Neunzig hurried to get out before her road closed, too. Harvey Creek also threatened her property.Her driveway was rapidly filling with water.
“The dikes here are called training dikes. The water seeps through. I don’t blame the county, but if the dikes were to break, we would be in deep trouble,” she said. “This is a great place in the spring, but not now.”
It’s been a rough winter for Neunzig, who lost her greenhouse to heavy snow and her water pump and pipes to freezing weather.
The flooding wasn’t much easier for her neighbor Craig Rolston, who had to move about 400 beehives to higher ground on Wednesday.
Across the river at Haller Park, Deanna Ice of Arlington and about 50 other people watched the river rush by. Trees in the river exploded against the pilings of the Highway 9 bridge over the Stillaguamish, making for impressive sound effects, too.
An Arlington School District “lunch lady,” Ice made sure earlier in the day that Trafton Elementary School had food stored there in case students and teachers were trapped, as they were in 2006.
“I keep a supply of food there for this reason,” said Ice, as she gestured toward the river. “The power of the water is just mesmerizing, isn’t it?”
Arlington School District spokeswoman Misti Gilman said the district would decide this morning if schools would open. Trafton, Eagle Creek Elementary and Post Middle School are susceptible to flooding, Gilman said.
In the Stanwood-Camano School District, spokeswoman Cathy Britt announced that schools there would be closed today.
Residents of Josephine Sunset Home in downtown Stanwood were evacuated to Stanwood High School on Wednesday evening, Britt said. Community Transit provided three 40-foot buses to help move residents.
Earlier in the day, about 30 Stanwood High School agriculture and natural resources students filled and stacked sandbags at Twin City Foods in downtown Stanwood.
Jack Medlicot, 17, said he probably wouldn’t be able to get home to his parents’ place on Norman Road, but he was happy to help fill sandbags to help others.
The Stanwood Fire Department enlisted the help of the students so residents and business owners could pick up sandbags. Teacher Ryan Ovenell backed his pickup into the work area and cranked up his radio so the students could listen to country tunes while shoveling. On Marine Drive near Norman Road, Craig Fox had built a sandbag fortress around his house, but water from the Stillaguamish was already running through his yard.
“I am not sure how this is going to work out,” Fox said.
Sandbags also were available outside Arlington City Hall, where emergency management coordinator Chris Badger set up shop in the City Council chambers.
Badger made a trip early Wednesday to visit people who live along the river. Most knew to leave, she said. The mobile home park next to Haller Park was not in danger, Badger said.
Army Corps of Engineers officials visited Arlington to check dikes along the city side of the river and they reported they were holding and overtopping, as designed, into a holding field, Badger said.
The Snohomish County chapter of the American Red Cross opened a shelter at Arlington Free Methodist Church on Wednesday evening. Cots, blankets and food were to be provided, spokesman Kris Krischano said.
At Arlington Hardware, clerk Kristi Cook sold sump pumps, patch kits for basement walls, plumbing supplies and lots of boots.
Michael Walsh, who lives upland from Silvana, made a quick trip to the grocery store in Stanwood on Wednesday before Marine Drive was closed. He stood photographing the river from the road.
“The river came up real fast this time. With the rain, the snow melt and the high tide, it could get bad this time,” he said.
James Brooke, who lives near Silvana, got permission from Stanwood Eagles trustee Dick Borseth to park the Brooke family’s recreational trailer on the club’s property near the Stanwood-Camano Fairgrounds.
“Good thing I have a four-foot foundation on my house. That’s a must if you’re going to live in the valley,” Brooke said
In Darrington, flooding had blocked most of the roads into town and threatened to damage Town Hall. A pump was keeping water out of offices there, Mayor Joyce Jones said.
Mounds of snow all over town were flooding streets, she said.
“We’re kind of an island,” Jones said. “We’re an independent little neighborhood up here and were used to taking care of our own, so we’re moving water and moving snow.”
Reporter Kaitlin Manry contributed to this report.
Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.
