A backyard swing set is seen under floodwaters from the Cowlitz River on Wednesday morning in downtown Randle.
Per Fjugstad stands in his driveway near where water from a flooded Cowlitz River rose to early this morning on McKay Street in Randle.
Bob Allen, of Bremerton, takes a photo of a flooded Cowlitz River while standing at a road block on state Route 131 in Randle on Wednesday morning. Allen, who was hunting with a friend south of town, explained how they left their campsite near the Cispus River late last night because of high winds and rising waters.
The Cowlitz River Valley west of Randle is flooded from the intersection of Peters Road and U.S. Highway 12 on Wednesday morning.
Stormy, a 2 1/2-year-old Tibetan Mastiff, jumps in the bed of his owner's truck in downtown Randle alongside the rushing waters of Miller Creek. Jim Turner, owner of the 166-pound dog, was flooded out of his house last night by the rising waters of the Cowlitz River.
Signs point toward the Chehalis River as water fills its banks while bending between Chehalis and Centralia on Tuesday afternoon.
A man uses an umbrella to shelter himself from the rain as he walks south on Pearl Street in downtown Centralia on Tuesday afternoon.
A man walks down East Locust Street underneath the murals on the side of the Fox Theatre on Tuesday.
Cars spray up water along Washington Avenue in Chehalis on Tuesday afternoon.
Cattle graze in what's left of a field east of Paradise Valley Road near Adna after heavy rain on Tuesday afternoon.
The Chehalis River fills its banks in November 2015as Sue Jarrad, a worker with the Washington State Department of Transportation, scrapes off debris from the state Route 6 bridge in Chehalis. Heavy rain is expected in the area.
Zairus Cloud, a worker with the Washington State Department of Transportation, scrapes off debris from the state Route 6 bridge traversing the Chehalis River on Tuesday.
A squirrel drops a piece of bread as it eats in the rain on top of a sign next to Fort Borst Lake on Tuesday afternoon in Centralia.
By The Chronicle
While the Chehalis River at Grand Mound remained at flood stage Thursday morning, all other gauges were showing receding water levels on Lewis County area waterways after a powerful rainstorm spiked flood concerns across the Pacific Northwest.
U.S. Highway 12 was closed Tuesday night and the White Pass School District canceled classes as the Cowlitz crept over the highway and climbed to 21.88 feet at Randle overnight. At 22 feet, the flood would have been classified by the National Weather Service as major.
The highway reopened Wednesday afternoon.
“This thing burned itself out before it did any damage,” said Steve Mansfield, emergency management director for Lewis County.
Mansfield said he wasn’t aware of any evacuations.
“The fire department goes door to door at 22 feet and we got right up to 22 feet,” he said.
Packwood wasn’t affected by the flooding, Mansfield said.
At one point Tuesday night, there had been flood warnings on the Newaukum, Chehalis, Skookumchuck and Cowlitz rivers simultaneously.
Those rivers also peaked Wednesday and Thursday morning. The Newaukum near Chehalis reached 12.79 feet, which is in the moderate flood stage. The Skookumchuck didn’t hit flood levels at Centralia or Bucoda.
Rain in the Willapa Hills, at the headwaters of the Chehalis River, caused the river near Doty to crest at 14.42 feet at about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday.
“The Willapa Hills tend to get a lot of rain, so that’s where a lot of the water that drains into the Chehalis River system comes from,” said Andy Haner, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
The levels dropped quickly after the river crested.
That water in the headwaters made a slow progression downstream, raising levels through Centralia, Grand Mound and beyond.
“Within a river system, water moves downriver from the headwaters of the river down ultimately to the ocean, kind of like in the movie ‘Finding Nemo,’ ‘all drains lead to the ocean,’” Haner said with a laugh.
Of the many rivers in Western Washington, Haner said floods on the Chehalis tend to move very slowly comparatively.
“From the forecasting perspective, we’re just dealing with the water that’s already in the river system,” Haner said.
After that, sun is in the forecast until Monday night into Tuesday.
Local Fire Districts
Fire district personnel from throughout the county reported water over roadways and damage from wind overnight Tuesday, but said they saw no significant flooding of residential areas.
“We had some road closures and some areas of the district we can’t get into because of the road closures,” Jeff Jaques, chief of Lewis County Fire District 14 in Randle, said Wednesday morning.
Jaques said he isn’t aware of water flooding any homes, but said some homes have water in their yards.
Wind also caused problems in Randle.
Morton and Mossyrock had more trouble with wind than flooding overnight, fire district personnel said.
“We actually had several trees down over (state Route) 508 — 508 was actually shut down, I believe for over an hour,” said Sheli Harbaugh, EMS captain at Lewis County Fire District 4 in Morton.
The highway was closed between 3:30 a.m. and 4 a.m., she said.
Harbaugh said Morton didn’t have any significant problems with flooding.
Mossyrock hasn’t experienced any flooding, but wind knocking down trees caused power outages Tuesday, said Chief Doug Fosburg of Lewis County Fire District 3 in Mossyrock.
Fosburg said Mossyrock generally doesn’t experience flooding. However, the fire district is keeping an eye on the possibility of mudslides after recent heavy rains.
“We had a couple of large rocks come down a few nights ago on Highway 12,” he said. “It’s just something we’re aware of.”
Chief Andrew Martin, of Lewis County Fire District 1 in Onalaska, said some roads in the area were affected by the heavy rain.
Middle Fork Road in Onalaska had standing water Tuesday night, but much of it receded by this morning, he said. Tauscher Road was closed Tuesday night with 8 inches of standing water from flooded ditches.
Chief Duran McDaniel, of Lewis County Fire District 8 in Salkum, said his district had only one EMS call Tuesday night, and saw no flooding issues.
“I’ll say we had a fairly peaceful night,” he said.
Firefighter Jeff Ames, of Lewis County Fire District 6, said they hadn’t seen significant flooding.
“We found water over the roadway in a few places but nothing major,” he said.
Pe Ell also escaped major flooding as well
“We were monitoring Stowe Creek … It still had 3 or 4 feet until it reached its banks,” said Chief Mike Krafczyk, of Lewis County Fire District 11 in Pe Ell.
Urban Flooding
After days of rain, flood-prone streets in Centralia were inundated with water from rising levels, resulting in several closures, according to Kim Ashmore, Centralia street department manager.
North Silver, North Oak, North Rock and North Iron streets were closed off late Tuesday and Wednesday to help prevent property damage to houses lining those roadways.
Closures were reported in Chehalis for the same reason.
Ashmore said the city received complaints from homeowners after vehicles drove through the water and pushed the levels into houses and garages, prompting the closures.
“Hopefully with China Creek trying to recede, we’re past the point of any more flooding of any sort right now,” Ashmore said.
After only a few hours of sleep, crews headed out early Wednesday morning with pumps to help clear the water from the streets, Ashmore said. As China Creek receded, the water was pumped back into the creek.
Part of Main Street in Centralia was closed earlier due to standing water, but was reopened Tuesday morning.
Although there was standing water still present on some roadways, Ashmore said, it’s not as big of a problem as past floods.
“From the perspective of the past histories of flooding, like China Creek, it’s not bad,” he said.
Ashmore urged travelers to continually look for standing water and if at all possible, to try to avoid the flooded intersections.
“It’s not necessarily to my benefit but to the homeowners,” he said. “Those are the ones that we are trying to help out and trying to protect their property as much as I can.”
Power Outages
Lewis County PUD had no remaining outages listed on its website this morning.
Crews worked Tuesday and Wednesday to restore power to residents following scattered outages throughout the county.
By Wednesday afternoon, they had narrowed the outages to just 200 customers in East Lewis County.
Centralia City Light customers all have power after a crew of about 12 worked to restore two outages Tuesday night.
The first occurred at about 4 p.m. Tuesday in Salzer Valley when a tree fell on a line. Power was restored to 123 customers by 6 p.m, according to Centralia City Light General Manager M.L. Norton.
The second occurred at the Cooks Hill Substation at about 5 p.m. Tuesday and was also caused by a downed tree. In that outage, 1,254 customers — including Providence Centralia Hospital — were without power.
It was restored by 7:30 p.m. to all but 54 customers on Blanchard Road. Those residents got their electricity back by about 10 p.m., Norton said.
He said the restoration occurred fairly quickly considering the windy, wet weather.
“The crews did an outstanding job under difficult conditions,” he said. “We owe them a lot for being out there. That’s our job.”
