Flooding I-5/Chelalis is closed.

[Waterbuffalo]

Ifyour going to Seattle today, Interstate 5 is closed at Chehalis River according to KPTV. And they are saying if you try 101 throw Western Oregon to OLympic Peninsula that there is a lot of flooding that way, its not advised.

KPTV12 says that the only way to to Seattle is to Take I-84 to Yakima then I-90 over to Seattle.

And Amtrak to Seattle is not in service because of mud slides between Seattle and Portland and Portland to Bellingham. And there is no Amtrak Bus service, because I-5 is closed at Chehalis River.

Chief, if you think the I-5 bridges are hell, how much traffic between Seattle and Portland every year is blocked by this River that constantly floods several times of year. Why hasn't the WashDOT gone in and fixed it? For more than 20 years of traveling up and down I-5 between Bellingham and Vancouver, I have known about this river flooding problem.

If there is no way to get trains up and down to Seattle for commerce and trucks can't go up and down interstate for several days because of flooding, why has this issue not been addressed and taken care of.

There are two other rivers like this one. Skagit River near Mount Vernon about once every three years does this. And the Nooksack river near I-5 through Ferndale North of Bellingham has the same history of flooding out I-5 near Madrona area.

[Waterbuffalo]

KPTV is saying that the river is still rising and you might not be able to get to seattle until Thursday or later....

[Chief]

5-7 inches of rain in 24 hours will do that every time. You cannot prevent floods. All you can do is manage them as effectively as possible.

[Waterbuffalo]

If you want to see an interactive online map of washington rivers and their basins with guages and many fine things, take a look here...

This mightbe of interest to Tefen...

http://wa.water.usgs.gov/realtime/rt_latest_map.html

Here is the interactive map with the cowlitz river region that includes the "Lewis River"

http://wa.water.usgs.gov/realtime/htmls/cowlitz.html

Here is the Lewis River at the Heisson meter: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/wa/nwis/uv/?site_no=14222500&agency_cd=USGS

[Waterbuffalo]

Listening to Governor Gregoire talk about Lewis County and some of the devastation of the Chehalis River has brought to Lewis, (Western Lewis county according to one of governors subordinates is a washout.) Grays harbor, Pierce, and Southern Thurston Counties.

None of the Oregon television stations is going to cover this, but here is the nwcn, a regional news cousin of KGW and King5 television of Seattle.

Here is a video and news story from nwcn: http://www.nwcn.com/topstories/stories/NW_120407WX_weather_tuesday_DS.67673018.html

Some quote from a press conference of the Governor:

Every day that I-5 near the chehalis river is closed has an economic impact of 4 to 5 million dollars. Fifty thousand cars a day travel between seattle and Portland. That Eight percent of those are semi-trucks of good bound for or from the Puget Sound area. They are also redirecting all semi truck loads off short cut routes around this instead of going around Highway 12 near Kelso/Longview or I-84 to Yakima, then around to I-90 to Seattle to avoid this area.

The gorvernor will be having a conference damage update tomorrow at 9:30 and will be carried by TVW, Channel 22 on Comcast or you can watch it at http://www.tvw.org

[Waterbuffalo]

Tuesdays Storm update: http://www.tvw.org/media/mediaplayer.cfm?evid=2007120071&CFID=1973669&CFTOKEN=446c360bea93030e-A863D7B3-3048-349E-4EC5D6AD62D52E68

PDF's of statewide storm damage: #1 http://www.tvw.org/modules/Articles/Wind_Rain_Storm1.pdf

#2: http://www.tvw.org/modules/Articles/Wind_Rain_Storm2.pdf

#3: http://www.tvw.org/modules/Articles/Wind_Rain_Storm3.pdf