The Chelan County sheriff's office has issued an evacuation order for the Stehekin Valley ahead of heavy rain expected on Monday.
The agency recommends that people who can access Purple Point take the 1:30 p.m. ferry on Saturday or Sunday.
Slide areas may slide again, and creeks and drainages are expected to rise," Chelan County Emergency Management wrote in a Facebook post Saturday.
The remote town on the north shore of Lake Chelan is reeling after devastating floodwaters rushed down the fire-scarred mountainsides surrounding it. Much of the flooding poured down over burn scars from last year’s Pioneer fire or older burn scars in the area.
“Stehekin is an absolute mess,” Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison told The Seattle Times on Friday. “It’s staggering, the damage we’re seeing.”
The National Weather Service forecast for Stehekin says rain will begin around 4 a.m. Sunday. On Sunday, less than 0.1 of an inch of rain is expected.
On Monday, though, much more rain is coming: between 1 and 2 inches. Monday night, the rain may turn to snow. Both rain and snow are projected to continue throughout the week.
Stehekin has about 90 year-round residents. It's accessible only by boat in the winter. The population grows to about 250 in the summer when workers and tourists flock to the village at the mouth of the Stehekin River.
The river crested within 2 feet of the record early Thursday. That's over 5 feet what is considered a flood. The flooding destroyed a National Park Service water treatment facility.
"It is expected drinking water may become limited," the sheriff's office reported late Friday. Authorities had planned to send a seven- to 10-day supply of bottled water by boat, before the evacuation order.
Across the lake in Holden Village, a Christian retreat center, "a series of mudslides and washouts" left impassable the only route to the boat dock at Lucerne. Fifty-three staff members were being evacuated.
An update on Holden Village's website reads: "Please keep Holden and other Washington communities impacted by flooding — especially our neighbors in Stehekin — in your prayers.
Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.
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