State crews reopened U.S. 2 at Stevens pass after running a parade of dump trucks all day Friday to clear snow slides from the highway.
The highway was scheduled to be opened for passenger vehicles after 5 p.m., transportation officials said.
Tractor trailers and other large vehicles of 10,000 pounds or more would still have to use Snoqualmie Pass until at least midday Saturday because of a detour at Tumwater Canyon west of Leavenworth.
“We would be very pleased if we could get all that mud and debris cleared by midday tomorrow (Saturday),” transportation spokesman Jeff Adamson said. “That would be optimistic.”
The road blockage was the main trouble left by heavy weather this week.
Local rivers crested late on Thursday and early on Friday. Water levels were expected to keep falling into the weekend.
In the lowlands, Snohomish County officials received no damage reports and closed only a few roads in flood-prone areas.
“This appears to be a relatively low-impact event,” county spokesman Christopher Schwarzen said. “Based on river gauge readings the Snohomish at Monroe and Snohomish have crested and are heading down at a much lower level than forecast.”
The Snohomish River at Snohomish crested about a foot above flood stage just after midnight, the National Weather Service in Seattle reported. It was below flood stage by mid-Friday afternoon.
“It’s going down very slowly,” meteorologist Johnny Berg said.
The river near Monroe peaked just below flood stage late on Thursday. The Stillaguamish River at Arlington reached nearly two fee above flood stage Thursday and then dropped quickly.
Lighter amounts of rain and falling freezing levels in the coming days should mean the rivers will continue to recede, Berg said. The freezing level was about 4,000 feet around 5 a.m. Friday and should drop to about 2,000 feet by Saturday.
The Weather Service predicted showers on Saturday with a high near 46 degrees. Then the chance of rain should decrease, with Sunday bringing partly sunny skies and a high near 47 degrees.
Forecasters expect the chance of rain to increase on Monday.
An outgoing high tide Friday morning helped to ease the flood situation on the Snohomish, Schwarzen said. The danger of landslides was expected to remain high into next week.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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