CENTRALIA — Dodging tires, furniture and bubbling geysers of water, Bert Carver paddled a borrowed plastic boat through the murky streets of a defeated neighborhood.
After surveying his wife’s submerged car and the high-water mark at his first-floor windows, Carver glumly pointed out the “For Sale” sign still hanging in front of his newly remodeled house.
“Honey, it’s bad,” neighbor Sandra Lund called from her front door. “It’s real bad.”
Residents confronted similar scenes all across southwestern Washington on Wednesday, as floodwaters from a deadly storm finally relented, leaving a terrible mess behind.
Authorities counted at least three people directly killed from the storm and its aftermath of fallen trees, downed power lines and bursting rivers. Two more, a pair of hikers, also were killed in a Cascade Mountain avalanche after the snowpack took on heavy rain.
The worst wasn’t over for many. Officials and relatives searched for a man in his 80s from rural Winlock, believed lost after falling into a suddenly raging creek behind his house.
Toward the Pacific coast, thousands remained without electricity, and some rural areas were virtually unreachable, officials said.
Military and police helicopters kept up the constant beat of rotor blades over much of the region, in the largest aerial search-and-rescue operation in a decade. Some 300 stranded people had already been pulled out by Wednesday morning.
Gov. Chris Gregoire, who flew over the ravaged region for the second time Wednesday, said the damage could ultimately cost billions of dollars.
She had begun working with federal officials to assess the damage, and expected a presidential emergency declaration to help speed humanitarian relief to Washingtonians.
In Centralia and the neighboring town of Chehalis, homes and businesses bore the brunt of the flooded Chehalis River, which turned I-5 and several miles of the surrounding valley into giant lakes.
The freeway, closed completely since Monday evening, may not reopen for at least a few more days as state officials probe for damage that may be revealed as the water recedes.
Through it all, some signs of normalcy began creeping back Wednesday.
UPS driver Dave Morgan was back to work, making deliveries on a street lined with ruined carpets, soaked mattresses and assorted debris being chucked out of homes by tearful residents.
Morgan’s latest stop was the soggy home of Gary and Christy Greenwood, where a shiny new wireless controller for their Xbox video game system crossed paths with a pile of waterlogged books, mud-stained carpeting and a toppled Christmas tree.
The Greenwoods heeded some lessons from the area’s devastating 1996 floods, which wiped out the interior of their previous house.
This time, the couple stacked valuables — including a flat-screen TV and dozens of Christmas presents — as high as they could before fleeing.
But they still didn’t have flood insurance, wrongly believing their new home was out of danger.
“It’s a little bit overwhelming, to be honest,” Christy said. “No more floods. I’m done.”
As they stood with neighbors on the waters’ edge near their homes Wednesday, Brad Tegge and his girlfriend, Patricia Murray, wondered what comes next.
Their interior of their home didn’t seem damaged by the flood, but the chocolate-brown water had formed an imposing moat to keep them out.
Like many others, Tegge and Murray were evacuated before sunrise Tuesday, taking their children with them. “It’s been pure hell,” Tegge said.
Now, they began wondering how they’d get back to work: both Wal-Mart, where Tegge works, and McDonald’s, where Murray pulls down a paycheck, were closed because of the flood.
“We don’t know how long we’re going to be out of work, or even if we’re going to be paid,” Murray said. “We’ve got bills to pay.”
The storm’s toll
Washington’s rain and wind storm by the numbers:
EVACUEES: Emergency shelters have operated in seven counties, with more than 750 evacuees, including more than 100 displaced from nursing homes.
DEATHS: At least three deaths blamed on the storm and damage that followed. In addition, two hikers were found dead after an avalanche in the snow- and rain-soaked Cascade Range.
COUNTIES: Nine counties with bulk of damage: Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Pierce and Snohomish. Lewis and Grays Harbor expected to be in first White House emergency declaration.
ROADS OUT: 60 road closures originally, down to 20 by Wednesday. I-5 still submerged in Centralia-Chehalis area. I-5 serves 54,000 vehicles in the area each day, including 10,000 trucks.
Source: Governor’s office; state Emergency Operations Center
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