SPOKANE — An avalanche on I-90 temporarily trapped two cars Wednesday afternoon near Snoqualmie Pass, but their occupants were rescued unharmed, a state Department of Transportation spokesman said.
The pass, which had reopened late Wednesday morning after a 28-hour closure caused by heavy snowfall and earlier avalanches, was closed in both directions after the Wednesday afternoon slide. Spokesman Mike Westbay said Washington’s main east-west route across the Cascade Mountains would remain closed until thismorning at the earliest.
There were two people in each of the cars hit by the avalanche, he said.
Workers probed the snowslide, which measured 400 feet long by 30 feet deep in spots, as a precaution, but no other vehicles were caught, Westbay added.
Lynnette Marquis told KING-TV of Seattle that she was caught in the tail end of the avalanche as she was driving west from Ellensburg.
“I started seeing snow fall, more than should have been falling, and then it just was really really heavy,” Marquis said. “It was headed right for the car in front of me. I knew if I kept going I would have been right under it.”
She braked hard to the left, and said the falling snow cushioned her car as she hit the side of the road.
“I waited until somebody came and wiped off my window, which wasn’t very long, it was just minutes,” she said.
The slide occurred in the westbound lanes about 11/2 miles west of the summit of Snoqualmie Pass just before 3 p.m., Westbay said.
Motorists were being turned around at North Bend on the west side of the pass and at Ellensburg on the east side, Westbay said.
I-90 across Snoqualmie Pass, elevation 3,011 feet, carries about 27,000 vehicles per day. Traffic was backed up for miles on Wednesday afternoon.
Forecasters predicted that another incoming storm could drop 2 more feet of snow in the Cascades. Snowfall at Snoqualmie Pass since Monday has totaled 3 feet.
A snowslide that blocked the eastbound lanes prompted closure of the pass about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. It remained closed for 28 hours until one lane in each direction was reopened at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The Transportation Department said the pass was closed for 22 hours in 2002.
Before dawn Wednesday, workers detonated about 500 pounds of explosives to bring down more loose snow and plowed snow and debris equal to about 130,000 dump truck loads, the Transportation Department said.
To the north, U.S. 2 was reopened through Stevens Pass at 6 a.m. Wednesday following three hours of avalanche control work.
South of I-90, U.S. 12 remained open through White Pass and Highway 14 was open through the Columbia River Gorge.
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