City experiences minor rain flooding

EDMONDS — Streets had to be temporarily closed in a few places due to minor flooding, but overall, trouble caused in Edmonds by the record rain Oct. 20 was minor, officials said.

Fifth Avenue S. near Petosa’s Market had to be closed in the morning when a culvert became plugged, said city public works director Noel Miller. Shellbarger Creek, which runs into the culvert, overflowed and eroded part of a roadside embankment, Miller said.

The street was closed and traffic was detoured while crews unplugged the culvert and made sure the water was not affecting underground utility lines, Miller said.

Dayton Street between Highway 104 and the railroad tracks, which runs between Harbor Square and the waterfront antique mall, had to be closed when water accumulated, Miller said.

The fire department executed a rescue of sorts in the parking lot of the Waterfront Antique Mall when an older man was stranded in his car with water up to the floorboards, said Fire Chief Tom Tomberg. The man had called for a tow but the truck couldn’t reach his car because of the water.

Firefighter Mike Fischer reached the car and carried the man out on his back, Tomberg said.

Miller said the water, which normally flows through an outlet pipe to Puget Sound near Olympic Beach, had nowhere to go because the tide was in and taking up room in the pipe. Crews had no choice but to wait for the tide to go out, he said.

“Harbor Square was not in danger of being flooded out,” Miller said.

He added that a project is in the works to improve the capacity of the drain pipe.

“We’ve done a number of drainage improvement projects throughout the city to take care of long-standing problems,” Miller said. “We’re trying to put the stormwater utility fees to good use.”

Some flooding also occurred in a cul-de-sac in the Woodway Meadows neighborhood in south Edmonds, Miller said, but no reports were received of damage to homes.

Crews were keeping an eye on areas where landslides have occurred in the past, notably Meadowdale, Miller said. He said if the winter keeps up at this rate, “we have concerns there could be landslides.”