Northwest reels from deadly back-to-back storms (State of ER)

[lovuian]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/weather/12/04/northwest.storms/index.html

CNN) -- A pair of storms that slammed into the Pacific Northwest had much of the region under water Tuesday, leaving five people dead, thousands without power and major highways shut down.



The governors of Oregon and Washington have declared states of emergency, hoping to speed relief efforts after storms that pushed up water levels in some areas 25 feet in less than 48 hours.

"My priority is to ensure the safety of Oregonians by providing whatever resources they need to stay warm and dry and protect their property," said Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

The floodwaters came frighteningly close to some motorists.
more...

Poor Northwest Holy Cow
Stay Safe out there

[ORDagnabbit]

1. the 1996 storms were suppossed to be 100 year storms

chehalis and centralia are drowned.... its deeper than the 1996 once in a life time storms.

www.king5.com
www.komo4.com
www.theolympian.com
www.katu.com

[gateley]

7. I posted a pic here of Centralia - looked almost like New Orleans. nt

[Robbien]

2. All that water picked up in the NW is smothering the Great Lakes region

in snow right now and the storm front is heading east.

The weather outside is frightful.

Stay safe everyone.

[lovuian]

3. 25 feet of water thats like Tropical Storm Allison

thats alot of water

[uppityperson]

4. Pict of I-5 at Chehalis.

Looking south, semi trucks sit stranded on high ground above the flooded Interstate 5 at Exit 77 in Chehalis.



Recommending drive 7+ hours through Yakima (eastern WA) to get to Portland, or wait a couple days for water to recede and see if interstate is passable.

[opihimoimoi]

6. Holy Moley....that is fucked up.....I hope their Nat Guard still got trucks and shit to help.

[lovuian]

9. WHOAH

that says it all

[malaise]

20. Damn

that's a lot of water.

[EFerrari]

5. Stay safe everyone!

I feel so bad now for whining today that the air had turned chilly. :blush:

[Quantess]

8. I heard something about a levee breaking.

Does anyone know?
Last night I had dinner in Olympia with people who live in Centralia, and it wasn't flooded there last night. This happened sometime late at night or in the morning.

Edit: We had dinner 2 nights ago.

[Missy Vixen]

10. The levee broke in Centralia

if I remember correctly.

Guys, I realize this is a drop in the bucket in comparison to Katrina, but seriously, if you are a praying person, please say a few for the residents of Washington and Oregon. We're currently landlocked, but we're fine. There are a hell of a lot of others that aren't fine, and the rescuers are overwhelmed. The cleanup is going to be unbelievable as well.

I wish we could import the water to people who need it, like Atlanta.

In the meantime, the water will eventually recede, but we had one of those "hundred-year storms" just last year on December 14th. The next F*eeker who tries to tell me there's no such thing as global warming or climate change is going to get a faceful.

Julie

[Quantess]

11. I don't think anyone expected it to be this bad.

Up here, in South King County, it was typical stormy and wet weather. I was shocked to hear of a True Disaster so nearby.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004051770_webrescue04m.html

My friends were lucky. They are near the Skookumchuck river, not the Chehalis river. Though the flooding got damn near their home! Others were not as lucky.

[uppityperson]

14. How's it going over there? And a bit from today's paper, flooding and dike

Bridge clear yet? Had a sib live next town south for yrs, so am familiar with the area. They got clocked in several times.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004053609_stormsw05m.html

Some of the most desperate situations unfolded in the upper reaches of the Chehalis River, which flows east out the rugged Willapa Hills. The rising water decimated homes in Pe Ell as well as other smaller towns and homesteads.

"All you can see is just the peaks of the roofs. ... It's hard to comprehend," said Gov. Christine Gregoire, who toured the upper valley by helicopter. Some families hunkered down through the worst of the flooding.

Tracy and Laura Strickland built their house near Adna 2 feet above what they thought was the 100-year floodplain. When the water rose Monday night, they retreated to the second story as logs pounded their home and punctured propane tanks hissed with leaking gas. They were picked up by a rescue truck Tuesday morning.

Sometime Monday night or early Tuesday morning, the Chehalis River either breached or topped a protective dike, inundating parts of Centralia. People reported the water rising several feet or more in less than 20 minutes.

[stevedeshazer]

12. Vernonia, OR

[Quantess]

13. Vernonia was hit hardest of all, I've heard.

Vernonia is already economically struggling, am I right? Fairly low income and depressed economy there. Those are mostly poor people who have been dealt another serious blow.

[stevedeshazer]

15. Yes. It's a logging town about 50 miles from Portland in the Coast Range

Most folks there are not well off in the first place.

I grew up in the same county (Columbia) and it's really a cool place. It's pretty remote.

[MissB]

21. Wiped out: the grocery store, gas station, and school.

[countryjake]

16. Sections of I-5 are still covered in 6 ft of water...noon today...

one farmer has lost 1000 head of cattle down in Lewis Co and they are still going door-to-door looking for more people who may have been caught by the roaring flood of the Chehalis River and died in their homes or cars. Whole areas in Grays Harbor Co are still cut-off (since Sunday night) and the Chehalis has just now crested out there...once high tide comes in, it is still under Major Flood Severity Warning til Friday afternoon. The ground is so saturated, some of this water is not receding as fast as originally predicted. The storm has affected so many rivers, so many roads, so many counties, massive devastation for so many people, it will be months before any sort of recovery can happen.

If your river flooded, don't forget to use common sense and be wary of the poisons the water most likely contains. If you're gonna make donations, don't forget that shovels, bleach, boots, and blankets are number one needs for most trying to dig out of this mud wallow.

Anybody been in contact with anyone from out at Wash-Away Beach? Last we heard they were getting over 45 ft. swells on the north side, but that was Monday morning.

[lovuian]

17. Wow this is huge area

News Media is awful quiet

and yes when the ground is saturated the receding takes longer

it bothers me we don't have more troops in there to help out

[countryjake]

26. They're busy "surging" in Iraq!

The Peninsula got hit especially hard, but they flood first everytime anyway, so it's just old hat. That wind knocked so many trees into the rivers, they have houses being taken out by waterborne logs, rather than just floodwater. It was frightening here all week, the wind just finally layed early this morning where we are.

[uppityperson]

19. Where's Wash-away beach? eom

[countryjake]

24. It's out there south of Westport, Willapa Bay, close to Tokeland...

the place is eaten up a little every year by waves, houses slipping into the sea, beach is littered with old foundations and pipes, from where someone's homes used to stand. Real cheap lots out there, lol! They built a spit out to try and lessen the battering it takes and stop the erosion a long time ago, but the way it is situated just takes the brunt of all waves entering that bay so it's ridiculously hopeless. Whole blocks of houses have disappeared over the years and I'm afraid this may have been the storm that did the rest of them in. No compensation for any of those folks, at all, it's useless to try and stop the sea, so insurance for any of them has been out of the question for years.

[uppityperson]

29. whew. quick google for info and pictures.

http://www.erikalangley.com/ has a series "washaway beach, this week"


From his older series:



Article 2/14/07
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003883932_washaway14m.html

[countryjake]

32. Hey, thanks for those awesome pictures...that's exactly how it is...

my man has family who have lived there for half a century...his brother-in-law is always twisting his arm, trying to talk him into picking up something for so cheap, it's really mind boggling, just like that Times article says. Thanks for that article, too, we hadn't seen that. Some news program, like Dateline, did a piece on it back during the nineties, and most of the families and homes which they highlighted back then have long since been washed away. Some of them are just beach houses for the summer crowd, but there are beautiful nice old homes also, that the oldtimers hunker in all year round...their "melting inheritance" his sister likes to call it. It is one spectacular beach.

[malaise]

22. This is a tragedy that is receiving very little national

coverage. WTF is wrong with MSM?

[countryjake]

25. I did hear them say that practically every river in W. WA had flood warnings...

earlier this week on a network news show, but then the Chehalis break happened, so they always go for the really big story. Back in '81 every river flooded, too, but all the national news showed was cows floating down the Snohomish. It's typical of them to only cover the sensational stuff and ten feet of water over twenty miles of I-5 is pretty amazing, after all.

[stevedeshazer]

23. The Chehalis River this time of year normally runs 5000 cubic feet / second

At it's peak it was running at 90,000 cfs, eighteen times normal.

Whereabouts was the guy who lost all the cattle?

[countryjake]

27. They only said Lewis Co. down by where I-5 was underwater...

but it was NBC who reported that. (KING 5)

Chehalis is a Mighty River.

[Quantess]

18. 7 deaths so far

Governor says aftermath will be costly:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071205/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather

[slackmaster]

28. NWS has issued a flash flood watch for parts of southwestern California

Starting Thursday night. This is a big one.

[uppityperson]

30. 17 in WA town taken to hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning

Not sure if related but seems so since Ocean Shores has been having electricity out.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004055039_webmono05.html

OCEAN SHORES, Wash. — Ocean Shores fire officials say 17 people have been taken to a hospital for treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning after becoming sick at an IGA grocery store in this city on the Washington coast.

KOMO-TV quotes hospital officials as saying all 17 are in stable condition.

Fire officials couldn't immediately be certain about the source of the carbon monoxide.

[Bigmack]

31. That area of Washington is soooo Red.....

... and soooo poor.

Full of beater cars and pickups with "Support Our Troops" and "W" bumperstickers.

I am NOT saying "fuck 'em", but I am saying that telling those folks about Climate Change is like pissing upstream into the flooding Chehalis river.

It's not on a Katrina scale, but those poor folks are losing everything. A friend of my Bro-in-Law lost a two-year-old logging truck, his new manufactured home, and his car. His 22 ft boat saved his family and his neighbors.

Another guy has over a million bucks of logging equipment (mortgaged to the hilt) in an area noted for flooding and mudslides. He won't be able to get in to see if it's OK for weeks.

[countryjake]

33. Well, I think it's becoming obvious to everyone here.

If you volunteer and go out to work helping with the cleanup, the conversation always eventually drifts to wondering why the 50-year floods are happening every five or ten years now, why has FEMA and the Army Corps taken action to widen the areas affected by 100-year floods, the oppressive droughts (last year, for example) leaving rainforest to go up in flames, and the increasing difficulty faced in simply seeding, cultivating, & harvesting a farm crop at a profit. That attitude that "we can handle anything" or "it's happened before" becomes "what did we do to deserve this?".

In depressed areas like Grays Harbor Co, Pacific Co, Mason Co, and Lewis Co, you have hardened survivors who have learned to take the blows that economy hits them with to crawl back up and adapt, take things in stride (while leaning on "jesus" and blaming ecologists), to do their best to maintain. It's not fair to say that they don't clearly see that our weather and the environment in all of western wa seems to be transforming, maybe they aren't ready to admit anything to those who've been knocking them over the head with, but in times of major devastation, like these, the wonder becomes evident in the midst of personal disaster. Just wrangling with those FEMA bastards will be an eye-opener for many and as the long hopeless months of this winter destroy what confidence they had left (temperature tonight will be unusually cold), I think we'll see lots of those red-hot skeptics becoming many blue blue people (pun intended).