People line the doorways of a building on Maple Street with sandbags as flood waters from China Creek creep up the sidewalk on Monday morning in downtown Centralia.
With surveying equipment in hand, Lorna Smith, of Schinnell Surveying, walks along the waters edge at the corner of Ash Street and Centralia College Boulevard while measuring the water levels near her company's office on Monday morning in Centralia.
A man walks through water along Maple Street in Centralia on Monday morning.
A man throws away garbage in an alleyway on the between Tower Avenue and Pearl Street on Monday morning in Centralia.
Businesses in Centralia were hard at work attempting to limit the amount of water in their buildings as roadways continued to be inundated with floodwaters in the downtown corridor on Monday morning.
The city of Centralia activated the Emergency Operations Center at 7:30 a.m. due to the high amounts of water.
Crystal Adkisson, co-owner of Old School Barbershop, located at 110 W. Maple Street, said they responded to the rising water just in time, sandbagging the entrance of the shop.
Adkisson, who has worked at the barbershop for one year, said this was the first time she can remember the water getting this close to the entryway.
“It was out in the road, but it wasn’t up by the door last year,” she said.
Natasha Frye, wife of another owner, said she moved her equipment to higher ground, including her expensive clippers.
“You can tell that it’s really rising fast because at 8:30 a.m. I brought my kids to school and it wasn’t even on the sidewalks,” she said. “It was just barely going down the road. Now, two hours later, and it’s almost at the door.”
The Lewis County Lumber Company and the Ace of Spades motorcycle shop located on N. Gold Street saw some of the worst flooding, with up to 3 inches entering into both buildings.
Rock Rockwell, owner of Ace of Spades, said he had never seen the water so high. The business has been open since 2008, and although they have had a close call, water had never entered the building before the flood on Monday.
“I’ve been here since ‘08 and (the water) has got maybe over the curb a little bit once, but never like this,” he said.
By 8 a.m., water was flooding the building, soaking the shop and its equipment. Volunteers were hard at work sucking up the water with shop vacuums to help minimize the damage.
“I don’t think it can get much worse,” Rockwell said. “I wasn’t expecting this. This is wild.”
He said three quarters of the building was affected and the water seemed to come out of no where in a matter of minutes. The business will remain open through the cleaning effort as the shop works on finishing multiple jobs.
David King, the owner of the building which houses both the Lewis County Lumber Company and Ace of Spades, said the building had flooded before in 1996. At that time, 6 inches of water filled the buildings owned by King, so the cleaning process is something he has experience with. He said the water will not affect the businesses as bad as some may think, and with proper vacuuming and with the use of fans, everything would be OK.
Even with his other flooding experiences, King was surprised with the amount of water they were seeing.
“China Creek is higher than it has ever been because the dike that I have on that next property has never been breached and water was running over the top of it,” he said. “(The water) usually always stays 6 inches below the top of that dike and it was probably 6 inches over it in places at this time.”
The building is scheduled to open an antique tractor and farm equipment museum in May, something King said should still happen on time despite the minor setback.
“We’ll get all this fixed. This is just a couple days setback,” he said.
King said one of the major issues he experienced with the floodwaters is the waves created by passing motorists. He urged drivers to slow down and avoid high waters in order to help the businesses who are cleaning up.
“One of the problems that we have is that we can deal with the water and all that, but we get these cowboys with these four wheel drive trucks. They come by with these four wheel drive rigs and they make waves,” King said. “Waves get 6 inches higher than what the actual water level is and while they are sightseeing or touring because of the flood, why it shoves more water into our building … These people are trying to survive and keep as much water out of the building as they can; waves really don’t help them.”
The Salvation Army, located across from the Lewis County Lumber Company, didn’t have any water in their building, but the high water in the front parking lot is something that employees had never seen before.
Randy Stokes, warehouse coordinator, has been at the location since 1992 when the building opened.
“I have never in my years of being here seen water in the parking lots down here,” he said.
Commanding Officer of The Salvation Army, Major DeWayne Halstad, said several people had called for assistance and that flood cleanup kits were available for anyone in need. The kits include mops, buckets, cleaning supplies, gloves and bleach, among other items.
“If anyone needs one or anything like that, we’d be glad to give one to them,” he said.
While businesses were working on cleaning up the mess of water, other residents came together to help provide sandbags to those in need.
Volunteers helped pack the bags on the corner of North Pearl and West Maple. The sand, provided by the city of Centralia, was quickly placed into sandbags and loaded into incoming trucks.
Greg McClure helped the efforts and was the first on the scene to fill the sandbags.
After reporting to work at Union Hall, his office had already flooded. McClure moved equipment and supplies off the ground and then made his way across the street to help.
“I started filling (the sandbags) by hand because there were no shovels,” he said. “People have been coming in and out, loading trucks as fast as they can.”
When McClure started, he said there was about 3 yards of sand, and the crew was down to a yard and a half hours later. He said hundreds, if not thousands, of sandbags were filled just two hours after the effort began.
A shipment of more sand was delivered so the volunteers could continue their work.
The city also reminded drivers to slow down when driving through standing water.
“Going too fast can cause drivers to lose control of their vehicles,” a press release stated. “Also, the wake from the vehicles can cause houses and property to be flooded with additional water.”
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said sandbags for private residences could be purchased at several locations including Martin Sand and Gravel, Home Depot and Sunbirds.
The sheriff’s office advised motorists to obey all road closure signs. The city of Centralia said driving past road closure signs is a $124 traffic infraction.
