Lewis County Prepares for Flood Season, Expects Increased Rain Due to La Niña

Posted

Lewis County Emergency Management is warning residents to prepare for lower temperatures and increased precipitation thanks to an ongoing La Niña event. 

At Tuesday’s annual pre-flood preparation meeting, Deputy Director Andy Caldwell said the Pacific Northwest could see up to 33 percent more rainfall from now until February. 

Representatives from local emergency response groups were present to discuss coordination efforts in the case of a major flood, like the one in 2007 that required five days of rescue operations and left 1,800 homes damaged or destroyed. 

In the case of a flood, Lewis County Public Works, which Emergency Management falls under, has sand and sandbags at their central location in Chehalis and will stage loose sand outside for residents to take. Local emergency departments may open up their own sandbag locations as well.

According to Caldwell, the county’s emergency response model will be shifting to a more traditional incident command model, where local emergency services will serve as the command center for emergencies occurring in their jurisdictions. Essentially, Caldwell said, local services have been promoted, and Emergency Management will take on a service role underneath, coordinating between departments if necessary. The department recently requested a significant budget increase, as it has not been able to meet state requirements or run interlocal practice exercises.

Keith Rudie, a geotechnical engineer and the Army Corps of Engineers’ new lead for the Chehalis Basin also told local emergency responders to keep the Corps in mind, saying their emergency contracting can happen surprisingly quickly, providing technical or direct assistance in the case of a flood. 

“(If) it’s a significant event and you need an extra set of eyes out there, I can come down and others in the flood response team can come down and assist,” Rudie said. “We’re not swooping in as the big federal government — we work for you, so wherever you need us.”



According to Rudie, the state restricts when the Corps can actually mobilize to help the basin, depending on where water levels are at. A work-around, however, is that the Corps can pre-stage necessary materials before they’re able to mobilize. Rudie also said the Corps can help with sandbagging, and can give demonstrations to local areas or businesses about the most effective way to fill and lay bags to prevent flooding.

“If you find yourself in the position where you really need to start moving some sand, give us a call, we’ll bring the sandbag machine down and start filling some sandbags,” he said. 

Caldwell encouraged local leaders and business owners to keep tabs on water levels at rivers.lewiscountywa.gov, where levels of rivers and tributaries are regularly updated using river gauges. 

He also highlighted the county’s alert system, which residents can sign up for on the county’s website. The alert system now offers a Spanish language option, but although over 77,000 contacts are in the system, Caldwell said only one person opted for a Spanish option, indicating that the county’s Hispanic population may not be adequately connected to the service.

“It becomes important that as our Spanish-speaking community increases … we want to make sure our information goes out to everyone who needs it in the community,” he said.

Caldwell encouraged local leaders to make an effort to connect Spanish-speaking residents to the system, which can provide alerts via phone call, text, and email.