Residents throughout Snohomish County assessed the damage Tuesday from the biggest flood of the year, but flooding continued to disrupt residents’ lives today throughout the county.
More than 30 roads across the county were closed because of flooding, including sections of Ash Way near Lynnwood, Pioneer Highway near Silvana and Oso Loop Road west of Darrington.
The Mountain Loop Highway was closed after flooding punched a lane-wide hole in the roadway at the approach of the bridge over the south fork of the Stillaguamish River near Verlot.
Highway 9 north of Arlington was closed early Tuesday but was reopened about noon, said Victoria Tobin, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation. Highway 530 was also closed near Rockport after Department of Transportation maintenance crews reported more than 4 feet of water on the road. The road was reopened late Tuesday.
An eastbound lane of U.S. 2 on the Hewitt Avenue trestle near Everett was closed so crews could clear away logs and other debris collecting on the bridge’s support piers.
The shutdown stretched past the expected 4 p.m. reopening of the highway and caused heavy congestion for the evening commute.
(In King County, U.S. 2, about two miles west of Steven’s Pass, was reduced to single-lane alternating traffic due to a slide).
Mel Reitz, an assistant maintenance superintendent with the Department of Transportation in Everett, said the agency got word just after 3 a.m. Tuesday that debris were starting to build up in Ebey Slough.
"We had people out all night on flood watch," Reitz said, adding that equipment to remove logjams had been reserved the night before and crews were sent to the trestle at the first sign of debris jams.
Although the trestle was designed to handle the extra pressure of log jams, "it’s just not something we want to subject it to unnecessarily," Reitz said.
"It restricts the flow, and we worry about it backing up and overtopping the dikes," he said.
Bob Johnson said the flooding near his home didn’t get as bad as he first expected. He spent much of Tuesday watching the water rise in Ebey Slough east of Everett.
"It looks like it might not be as much of a flood," he said. "I think maybe this was a practice thing for the flood business."
Even so, the flood looks like it hit at least one upstream farmer pretty hard, Johnson said.
"There goes a bunch of pumpkins," he said as he watched them float past in the swollen slough, looking like large orange bobbers.
"I can see two, four, six, eight, 10, 12 …" he counted.
"There must be a thousand pumpkins down there."
Mel Bond, a resident of River-N-Forest Estates east of Granite Falls, said floodwaters from a tributary of the south fork of the Stillaguamish River covered roads in his neighborhood.
And Canyon Creek also came close to swamping the bridge that serves as the only way in and out of his neighborhood.
"The river, I’d say, was within 3 to 4 feet from the bottom of the bridge," he said. "It was a little spooky."
The neighborhood was pretty lucky that the bridge wasn’t knocked down by logs carried downstream by the flood.
"We’d have to rent a ferry or something," Bond said.
Farther east on the Mountain Loop Highway, residents took stock Tuesday of this week’s flood. For many, the worst of the flooding came on Monday night.
The south fork of the Stillaguamish swept away one home Monday and was threatening to claim another near Robe on Tuesday.
"Half of the house is hanging over the river," Cecily Perry said. "The river has gone down quite a bit; now you can see the damage. It’s a mess."
Her home, however, escaped damage.
"It was rushing through my backyard," she said. "I thought I was about to have riverfront property, and I live a block away."
With waters receding and a break in the rain, residents were getting a chance to survey the damage.
"We’re just trying to help clean up," Perry said. "There’s silt everywhere."
Naval Station Everett sent two dozen sailors in two crews to help sandbag in Stanwood near Twin City Foods and 270th Street NW. The Navy also sent four vehicles as part of the package, including a 40-passenger bus, to help in flood abatement efforts.
"We’re part of the community and just doing our part," said Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dennis Applegate.
City officials in Stanwood have issued a warning to residents not to use tap water without first boiling it. Water should be boiled three to five minutes. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes and food preparation until further notice. For more information, call 360-629-4577.
Crews built a temporary sandbag revetment on Florence Road to protect the East Stanwood downtown area. The floodwaters reached the sandbags shortly after 5 p.m. but looked to be receding by 10:30 p.m.
Sailors and Marines from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station helped fight floodwaters in Mount Vernon. More than 100 military personnel from the air station pitched in, including 40 Seabees from Construction Battalion Unit 417. They left Oak Harbor on Monday evening with a front loader and worked through the night.
Two busloads of sailors also helped with sandbagging along the Skagit River. Volunteers came from Whidbey’s Prowler, Orion and Aries squadrons, as well as other Marine and Navy departments from the naval air station.
"They’re a godsend," said William LaRue, manager of the city of Anacortes water treatment plant.
The Bob Heirman Wildlife Park off Connelly Road may as well have been Heirman Lake on Tuesday.
Locals dropped by with cameras and kids to capture the altered landscape in whatever way they could.
"I’ve never seen anything like this," said Cathcart resident Dave Blanchet as he snapped photos.
Cathcart resident Sean Nicholas and his sons, Josh, 8, and Nolan, 5, skipped stones down what several days ago had been a stretch of gravel road leading to the Snohomish River.
"I haven’t seen it this bad since I was a little kid," Nicholas told his sons.
A while later, a carload of young, hopeful fishermen arrived. They had just been to Wal-Mart for lures and new chest waders.
With the tags still on their fishing wares, Sergiv Antoci, 19, his brother Bogdan, 22, and their visiting cousin Sorin Cojocaru, 21, were in search of coho salmon.
The plan: catch one and clean it, and then Antoci brothers’ mother would barbecue it for dinner back in Lynnwood.
Five steps in, the water was up to their knees. A few more steps and the water was up to their chests. They couldn’t reach the river through the water.
"We didn’t expect this," Sergiv Antoci said, peeling the new waders off and packing them back into the trunk with the tackle box and fishing poles.
"We were trying to see how far we could make it and to catch a fish," Bogdan Antoci said.
"And catch some fun," Cojocaru said.
Residents are being advised to boil water after the city’s water system suffered a breakdown during flooding Tuesday night. By Tuesday, access to town was cutoff as roads were inundated.
Monday evening, the city’s two parks on either side of the junction of the north and south forks of the Stillaguamish River were completely flooded.
Water crossed Highway 530 at Twin Rivers Park, and police closed the road, cutting off the main route to Oso and Darrington.
Haller Park was also flooded. The gauge there recorded a crest of 20.8 feet at 4 a.m. Tuesday, more than a foot higher than the record flood of 1990.
At Island Crossing near I-5, the fields turned into lakes and some water spilled onto the interstate.
Several families checked into the Stagecoach Inn late Monday evening as the Sauk River flooded homes along Clear Creek Road and Sauk Prairie Road. Water reached other homes on Swede Heaven Road along the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River.
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