When a flood strikes, first responders know that minutes are important as the risk to residents rises at the rate of the water.

    A new plan being initiated by the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority will investigate whether or not the current system of river and rain gauges provides ample early warning for rescuers and citizens.

    The Lewis County Commission, lead agency for the authority, approved a request for qualifications Monday, which is the first step in finding a consultant to analyze the current early warning system and potentially implement a new one that includes the entire basin.

    Though results from the study won’t be ready until the summer of 2010, authority chairman Ron Averill said the project is important in the short term. While officials grapple with long-term projects that include levees and potentially dams, Averill said preparing for another flood is necessary.

    “The likelihood we’re going to get rain before a project is completed is pretty high,” Averill said.

The Current System

    There are 37 active stream gauges in the Chehalis River Basin, according to an analysis conducted by authority facilitator ESA Adolfson. Nineteen are operated by the United States Geological Survey, two by the National Weather Service, 14 by the Department of Ecology, and two by Thurston County.

    But only nine gauges are used by the National Weather Service cast flood warnings in a given event. Seven of those are located within Lewis County.

    When forecasting shows that a flood might occur, NWS issues a flood warning and begins communication with emergency management officials in impacted areas. According to the analysis by ESA, the weather service has reached a maximum number of forecast points, and would suggest only relocating some or adding more advanced technology.

    A list of recommendations by the weather service included: the installation of real-time gauges on streams and tributaries, additional precipitation gauges in the Willapa Hills of south Lewis County, technology to measure snowpack in the hills above the basin, and the conversion of some of Ecology’s gauges to use telemetry.

Doty Gauge Added

    The decision of which of those recommendations, if any, will ultimately be implemented will be up to the 11 jurisdictions throughout the basin that comprise the authority.

    Though another year will likely pass before improvements to the system can be made, there has been at least one advance in the past year.

    Near Doty, where the logs, woody debris and rush of water blew out two bridges and damaged and destroyed dozens of homes, a new gauge was added in 2008. The forecast point was quickly picked up and added to the roll of the weather service, which now uses it in providing real-time river levels and flood predictions.

    “We’ve been pushing that for over five years,” said Lewis County Deputy Director of Emergency Management Ross McDowell. “We finally have the data now.”

    McDowell helped lead flood rescue and recovery efforts throughout the past two major floods, Though not directly affiliated with the flood authority, he has a good idea of the capabilities of the current system.

    He said one major improvement would be to modify current gauges to provide river level information in real time. Ideally, the gauges would be customized in a way that first responders could receive automatic notification when the river rises quickly.

     “It’s all about the early warning,” McDowell said. “If you have enough early warning you can get out of the way, you can move livestock — and we lost a lot of livestock in 2007 — you can protect property. … As long as you get enough notice we can make that happen.”

    Another benefit McDowell sees in an analysis of the early warning system is the possibility of closely working with other jurisdictions. While downriver counties would benefit for more precise upper-basin data, Lewis County could benefit from communication with Grays Harbor, where tide levels and storms can impact the flow of the river.

    McDowell said the new Doty gauge, with laser-operated features, provides a more accurate reflection of river levels as increasing amounts of silt on the bed make information from traditional gauges harder to analyze. The more new gauges that can be installed, the better the information would be, he said.

Cost and the Future

     With improvement, though, is cost. Installation of a snowpack gauge is estimated at $30,000 and installing or upgrading a river gauge can cost upwards of $20,000.

    The flood authority is still operating under a $2.5 million appropriation from the state legislature, but how much of that money will be used on an early warning system remains to be seen.

    Other improvements could be achieved outside the realm of the authority. State congressional members, for instance, are working to finalize the closing of a Doppler radar gap off the coast of Washington that could improve forecasts.

    Regular meetings of the flood authority are held every third Thursday of the month at 1:30 p.m. at the Lewis County Courthouse.

County To Text, Call During Emergencies

    Beginning today, Lewis County residents can sign up for a program that will notify them by telephone in the event of flooding or any other natural or man-made disaster.

    CodeRED, referred to by some officials as reverse-911, is centralized on the Internet and based on a computer mapping system. Residents with property in Lewis County can sign up for the program for free over the phone or on the Web.

    Authorities, specifically the county’s communications department, emergency management and the sheriff’s office, will have the ability to circle geographic areas on the map when residents in that region are believed to be at risk.

    Lewis County Deputy Director of Emergency Management Ross McDowell said the tool will be especially helpful during the frequent flood events that wash over much of the county.

    To sign up, residents can either call 740-1142 or visit the county’s Web site at www.lewiscountywa.gov and click on the “Code Red Community Notification” link. In either case, a name, physical address and up to three phone numbers must be provided.

    Once signed up, residents will be in the system. McDowell said Lewis County authorities will be able to enter a message into the system during a notification, and the words will be transmitted to all affected areas via a phone call. Cellular phones with text messaging capabilities can also receive a text message.

    “It’s great for us,” McDowell said. “It can be used 24 hours a day and it calls everyone at once.”

    McDowell said the county’s main way of transmitting weather information will remain NOAA Weather Radio, but the new system will provide additional means of notification.

    “It’s voluntary but we really want people to use it, as many as possible,” he said. “It’s a great system.”