Pictures of flooding in the Mineral area

The Elbe bridge over the Nisqually:

East Creek in Pleasant Valley:

Kootney Creek in Pleasant Valley:

Mineral Creek:

Morton update

I should’ve thought to check the Oregon papers for news on Morton.

Washington Flooding is a great little post (with a picture) from The Oregonian.  Evidently, there is a shelter at the Morton Elementary School for stranded travellers. And they’re really stranded. 7 is closed to the north. 12 is closed at Packwood and the Pass (and probably other places). 12 the other way out toward Mossyrock has slides across the road. 508 is closed. Those are all the options.

UPDATE: 4:50 – SR-7 is still officially closed, due to water over the road between the school bus barn and the State Patrol building. Evidently, locals who know the area have taken to driving through the Tubafor lot. There’s still a manned roadblock at the Elbe bridge, with guys in uniforms who are not letting anyone go south unless they have Mineral-address ID.

More on the shelter

Woman rescued from landslide north of Morton

Full photostream

Viewer photos from KOMO

I’ve never seen Glenoma flooded like this.

In other news, last night, the Coast Guard twittered:

USCG_PACAREAPAE: Coast Guard Air Station Astoria helicopter rescue crew hoisted two people in Morton, Wash. #waflood

Quick road update

SR 161 northbound is closed at 317th Street E and SR 161 southbound at 304th Street E due to water over the roadway. No detour available.

SR 7 southbound is closed at Elbe. This is a manned closure, local traffic only south of Elbe on SR 7. This is because of flooding at Morton, but if you’re only heading to Mineral, they should let you through.

I-5 is closed at Chehalis, as are the rail lines, and down to two lanes each direction in Fife, but people are still getting through.

So it sounds like from Mineral, you can get north on 7 to Spanaway, where there may be detours. From Morton, depending on how exactly they have closed 5 at 12, you might be able to get south to Portland. No one gets to go to Spokane, though.

Good news! The park seems to be ok, according to the News Tribune:

Mount Rainier officials have reopened the Nisqually entrance into the park.

The entrance was closed Wednesday evening as a precautionary measure.

Officials were concerned about flooding, which didn’t develop overnight.

The road between Longmire and Paradise is closed for snow removal.

The National Park Inn at Longmire is open.

Road closures, river predictions

That last post was just too messy after all my updates.

Rivers

Nisqually at National from HAMweather — To sum up, it’s going to be about as high as it is now for the next 24 hours, according to forecasts. This one is a little tricky to read, as the data that has already occurred is at the bottom of the screen, and the forecasts are at the top, but it comes with a nice map.

Cowlitz at Randle from HAMweather — They’re calling it a moderate flood right this second at 20.84 feet, but by 4 PM tomorrow, the forecast is for 27.69 feet. That’s two feet HIGHER than 2006.  The NWS calls for 28 feet.

Roads (from WSDOT)

All the passes are closed for tonight, at least. WSDOT will evaluate tomorrow.

I-5 is closed. Currently only in that Centralia-Chehalis way, but there are some worries about the Puyallup River Bridge in Tacoma.

7 is closed between Mineral and Morton. It is still showing as open from Eatonville, so it’s still possible to head north.

State Route 161 is closed from mile marker 13 to 18.  That’s between Eatonville and Graham, probably down by Ohop Lake. (Your humble reporter needs an atlas with MILE MARKERS) Currently, you can get from Mineral to Eatonville, however, there is flooding all the way down the Puyallup.

Lewis County road closures for Morton:

1/7/2009	09:00:AM	Davidson Rd	Morton	At river	3 feet of water over road. Residents being evacuated
1/7/2009	11:15:AM	Davis Lake Rd	Morton	800 Block	Closed due to water and debris
1/7/2009	11:45:AM	Highland Valley Rd	Morton	in the middle	is closed
1/7/2009	10:30:AM	Meinars Rd	Morton	at Meinars Rd W intersection	Closed due to slide
1/7/2009	12:00:PM	SR 508	Morton	MP 2-32, Closed in low spots from MP2 to Morton	Closed due to flooding

1/7/2009	12:00:PM	SR 508	Morton	MP 2-32, Closed in low spots from MP2 to Morton	Closed due to flooding
1/7/2009	12:00:PM	SR 7	Morton	MP 1 -16, between Morton and the Lewis County line	Closed for flooding
1/7/2009	08:30:PM	State Route 508	Morton	Closed in Both Directions between Morton and Bear Canyon MP 22 to MP 32. Severe Flooding.	Closed
1/7/2009	08:30:PM	State Route 7	Morton	Water over entire roadway	Closed
1/7/2009	08:15:AM	Temple Rd	Morton	Low spot	Water over road, closed
1/7/2009	08:38:AM	US Highway 12	Morton	Slide on Road at Peterman Hill.	Slide over roadway.

In Mineral, they are listing Pleasant Valley as “reopened” or maybe “restricted”.

1/7/2009

02:42:AM

PLEASANT VALLEY RD

Mineral

MP 2.5

WATER ACROSS BOTH LANES

I also have to report that I was wrong that the schoolkids from Mineral were stuck on the wrong side of the closure — there was no school today due to snow and flood damage.

Please, if you have any pictures from Mineral/Morton/Ashford/Packwood/Randle, drop me a line.

It’s raining, it’s pouring

Well, folks, we have another Pineapple Express parked on top of us. As usual, the combination of rain and warmth means that the snow is melting off and adding to the already significant rainfall totals.

State Route 7 is closed. WSDOT says:

SR 7 - Mudslide on SR 7 from MP 16.76 after Nisqually River to MP 16.82 before State Route 706 since 10:17 AM, 01/07/09 until further notice

From milepost 16 to milepost 17

Theoretically you could read this and head down to Morton to get out, but reliable sources indicate that 7 is shut down to Morton, trapping the mail, and more importantly, the schoolkids, on the wrong side of the closure. UPDATE: Closure confirmed:

1/7/2009

12:00:PM

SR 7

Morton

MP 1 -16, between Morton and the Lewis County line

Closed for flooding

They’re not coming out around on 12, either, as it is closed in AT LEAST five places, and 508 is closed at Bear Canyon.

If you are a Morton resident who knows a Mineral kid, you might want to call the parents and ask if you can help. bflynn can speak to the time she spent 3 days at the principal’s house because of this type of thing.

If you have any further information, or any questions we might be able to answer as a group, please comment. For the duration of the excitement, I’ll be keeping a close eye out on the blog.

Update, 3:05 PM: Our correspondent reports that from Columbia Crest school down to Mineral, the road is still open, but there is water over the road at Carlson.

Please remember not to drive into water on roads as you may not know how deep it is. Swift water rescue is already very busy today!

Update, 3:31: Mt Rainier entrance gate is closed tonight, according to Lights and Sirens (an excellent blog run by the TNT)

Update, 7:40: I5 is closed, as are all three passes, so there is no north-south route from Seattle to Portland. In fact, there’s no route to Spokane, either, until one of the passes open.

Here are some helpful links:

Twitter stream with #waflood tag — These are “microposts” from people who have included the tag #waflood.

Cliff Mass, a U of W meterologist and all-around smart guy about the weather: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/

WSDOT road closure information for the area. It’s better to go to the local areas, as the high priority stuff has as much to do with the amount of traffic expected as how bad it is.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/trafficalerts/default.aspx?route=US%2012&view=main&action=3
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/trafficalerts/SouthWest.aspx

Possible record flooding at National

Road closures in Pierce County
Of interest:
Kernahan Rd – restricted
Alder Cutoff – restricted, use caution
Ohop Valley Rd. @ bottom of hill at creek – Closed
Ohop Extension Rd. – Closed

Road closures in Lewis County

Of interest:

Per WSDOT twitter:

SR 508 Jackson Highway to Morton, Lewis County – MP 2 to 32 closed due to high water over the roadway.

1/7/2009	09:00:AM	Davidson Rd	Morton	At river	3 feet of water over road. Residents being evacuated
1/7/2009	11:15:AM	Davis Lake Rd	Morton	800 Block	Closed due to water and debris
/7/2009	11:45:AM	Highland Valley Rd	Morton	in the middle	is closed
1/7/2009	10:30:AM	Meinars Rd	Morton	at Meinars Rd W intersection	Closed due to slide

Rainfall totals for November

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15

0.000 1.654 0.126 1.732 1.142 4.567 1.732 0.157 0.118 1.693 0.512 1.457 0.787 0.039 2.165

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

0.51 0.00 0.039 0.00 1.14 0.52 1.41 0.59 1.38 0.47 0.00 0.99 0.00 0.19 0.15

(Total to date 19.94″)

Flood Pictures

Our neighbors up at Mt. Rainier National Park have put together some great resources on flood damage in the park that they know about. It will be late spring before we get a complete picture of all the damage.

Mt. Rainier Flood page

Damage tour (PDF)

In the meantime, remember that every day the park is closed is another long, slow day for the businesses that depend on tourist traffic. A Mineral resident who works up at Copper Creek says that she has had entire shifts where no one comes in. This holiday season, consider taking your relatives out to dinner locally, instead of eating at home. We probably won’t be sledding at Paradise this winter, but maybe we can sneak away to one of the B&Bs in Ashford.

In happier news, Mineral’s new fire truck has arrived! Thanks to the Department of Homeland Security, our emergency calls will be answered by a truck that does not need “coaxing”.

News from Mineral Lake

Welcome to the Mineral Lake Ledger, a very local news source for Mineral, Washington, and the area around it.

It’s been a big week for news, and Mineral is low on the coverage priorities for most of the bigger outlets, so we thought we’d fill in the cracks.

Although Mineral received over 8 inches of rain, the only property damage reported so far was the loss of two structures from the floodplain down by the Nisqually. The Nisqually bridge held up, and the new Mineral Creek bridge came through with no problems.

In Paradise Estates, the approaches to the Kernahan Bridge washed out, and residents were stuck, but safe. They are now out, and everyone is fine except for some lingering cabin fever.

Mt. Rainier National Park didn’t fare so well. The Sunshine Point campground is “gone”, according to Dave Uberaga, and probably won’t be rebuilt, and crews are working feverishly to get the road from the Nisqually entrance to Longmire back together before the heavy snows and winter recreational system. Before the road washed out, almost all park employees were evacuated down to Tahoma Woods.

In school news, Columbia Crest lost power on Tuesday, but classes continued because it is difficult to send students home in the middle of the day. The Morton school district cancelled classes, and the Jr./Sr. High School may have had some flooding in the building, as well as a lot in the parking lot.

Just across the ridge from us, Randle and Packwood were inundated. Reports indicate that some (sad, soggy) elk hunters may still be stranded by washouts on logging roads. The Cowlitz made a major course change, and as of this writing, Highway 12 is still closed up by Silver Creek Road.

It’s raining again today, but the forecasters say that it won’t be as bad as the last system, so let’s hope that it’s not the last bit of water that starts causing slides.

---

Flood pictures of the Cowlitz: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=flood%20cowlitz&w=all
Flood pictures from around the state: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shesnuckinfuts/292137336/