Ships, trains start to move, but I-5 remains stuck in the mud

[Chief]

http://www.oregonlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2007/12/new_main_entry.html

by The Oregonian
Wednesday December 05, 2007, 3:16 PM

Disrupted Northwest rail and shipping routes crept back online Wednesday, but the West Coast's main ground-transportation corridor -- Interstate 5 -- will remain closed at least until this weekend, Washington state transportation officials said.

The Columbia River bar was reopened to traffic, relieving a bottleneck of waiting ships. Commercial rail lines restarted freight traffic, and Amtrak planned to resume passenger service Thursday. Alternative road routes to Puget Sound were unblocked for passenger cars and critical truck traffic.

But by Wednesday evening, some three or four feet of muddy water still covered I-5 at Chehalis, Wash., concealing untold damages.


This is a very comprehensive article from the Oregonian today that details just how bad things are up in the Chehalis area. Until the floodwaters recede, WSDOT can't even assess how bad the damage is to the Interstate, much less estimate how long it will take to fix.

To compound the potential problem, most of the traffic is being diverted through the Snoqualamie Pass, and at this time of year it's a crapshoot on when (not if) the pass will be closed for snow. If a bad enough storm comes in, it's not unusual for that pass to be closed at intervals to plow the roads, and even deal with the occasional avalanche.

As the Oregonian is reporting, this is the third time since 1997 that this section of I-5 has been closed due to flooding, in an area that is supposedly built to survive a 100 year flood event. Three 100 year floods in ten years??

I wrote in my Columbia Crossing OpEd about the emerging transportation emergency in the Washington State ferry system, because the rain hadn't started yet, and like everyone else in Washington, I was comfortably oblivious that this problem even existed. Now we are talking about Billions of dollars worth of repairs just to get I-5 opened again, Billions more in improvements to prevent this from happening again, and what will surely be at least hundreds of millions in lost productivity, and additional shipping costs to everyone.

I'm stunned that things could be so bad in that stretch of I-5 that a rainstorm could shut it down. Even the railroad and Amtrak are shut down right now due to flooding. I grant you we can't prepare for every weather event that comes ashore, but this is quite different because the State has avoided a solution for years.

In my perfect 20/20 hindsight, this is another symptom of the severe disfunction Washington State's Transportation Department. WSDOT is so heavily invested in light rail projects around the State, we end up with repeated closings of I-5 because the real transportation problems are being neglected. People in the Puget Sound area voted down Proposition 1 last month in part because they felt it did not address the current transportation needs of the community, and the ongoing saga of I-5 through Chelhalis is exactly the kind of issue many of those people had in mind when they voted "NO" on Prop 1.

In my view, this is further proof that the State of Washington has no business investing in light rail for Downtown Vancouver, if they can't even keep I-5 and the railroad open during a rainstorm, or repair/replace the aging ferries in the Puget Sound.

This crisis over closing I-5 is another sobering wake-up call for Portland and Vancouver too. Closing I-5 has enormous consequences no matter if it happens at Chehalis due to flooding, or at the Columbia River Crossing due to a failure of the bridge. We need to stop wasting time and money studying these problems to the point of failure, and get about the business of fixing the real problems.

[karma]

Should someone up there be heeding the warnings? Or are they selling lakeside property cheap? They sure aren't learning from the problems up north down our way as they continue on the path of disaster with the GMA status quo and how this area is surrounded by creeks & rivers here??
Yep we all should equally share in this density and we will continue to see Mother Nature prove what the some think is okay to fill in the wetland
areas?

[Waterbuffalo]

Chief, I have been talking to friends about Chehalis River crossing at I-5 for 15+ years BEFORE i ever came to clarkblog and talked to locals here about it before this rain storm. How many do you think or can guess even cared??

And to think the average Oregonian is going to care about a strip of river front property in Washington state? I'd say honestly, people don't give a care.. (replaced a few words in this sentence to cover my anger about the subject and save a few people's minds..)

As much as Karma rants about CC and City of Vancouver politics, this is my one burning poker of an issue as to WHY for years some thing wasn't done and why excuses are still be perpetrated to this day. The current governor is waiting to assess the damage and help those who need it but where is this transportation plan to FIX this?

About the only people who are interested in fixing this is a small band of fanatics and the people that depend on that stretch which includes frequent travelers who live here in the Portland Metro area and have to work in Seattle and the truckers/shipping fleets/train companies.

[Waterbuffalo]

And other note,

Putting up more levees isn't going to fix this problem. Look at the pictures and descriptions of what happened. The current ones didn't do their job and building them higher or more of them isn't going to fix this.

Honestly, the only way this is going to get fixed is going to be some dollar signs attached to it.

[Chief]

Big dollar signs WB. I think I-5 through the Chehalis river valley is as big of a problem as I-5 through Portland is. The terrain is poorly suited for anything really, and it would cost billions to construct an elevated highway that wouldn't flood; but that would overshadow the town.

Remember when our car broke down in Centralia last summer?? The gas station that fixed it had water up to the roof the other day...

[Waterbuffalo]

Centralia and Chehalis are good communities that deserve better than this? Wonder if some of those fine Seattlites are buying homes in that area for the wonderful recreation opportunities..

[Waterbuffalo]

According to this story there is a literal tanglement between the state, county and local governments in that area about I-5 and cleanup. Looks like another COV type of a winner screwup? Have a look see below..

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004056643_webstormmainbar06m.html

Flood-damaged I-5 reopens to truck traffic
By Andrew Garber

Interstate 5 in Lewis County reopened to truck traffic shortly after 6 tonight.

Crews were able to reopen the lanes in Chehalis that had been flooded since earlier this week when the receding water revealed less damage than expected.

The freeway isn't expected to open for passenger vehicles until sometime Friday, after crews replace barriers and make other repairs, State Department of Transportation officials said.

Truck drivers on the road tonight will encounter mud, water on the road and other damage.

For one mile north of Chamber Way, traffic will travel in one lane each way with no median barrier. Washington State Patrol troopers will talk with each truck driver before he or she enters that section of the road to explain the driving conditions.

A 20-mile stretch of freeway has been closed since Monday's drenching storm pushed the Chehalis River over its banks.

Crews Wednesday night breached a dike to help drain water covering less than a mile of the freeway. The breaching was delayed a few hours by a spat between state and local officials.

The I-5 closure near Chehalis is costing the state's economy an estimated $4 million a day as some trucks sit idle and others take time-consuming detours.

As highway crews worked to repair the critical transportation link, officials struggled to calculate the destruction caused by the state's worst flooding disaster.

Thousands of people in a multicounty area still lacked power or drinkable water Thursday — three days after a storm that drenched the region and forced hundreds to evacuate. Some homes and businesses remained flooded.

Gov. Christine Gregoire could only guess that the flood damage will total in the billions of dollars. The personal toll on people living in the hardest-hit areas simply isn't known yet.

The governor's office has had trouble answering basic questions about the numbers of people who are displaced or of homes destroyed or damaged. Estimates are expected in the coming days.

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"The fact is, the human needs are going to become our primary concern over the next few days, and we need basics from food to clothing to shelter to counseling to medicine. We are turning our attention to that," Gregoire said Wednesday.

The few numbers that were available paint a region in trouble.

About 300 people have been rescued by emergency crews. More than 750 people displaced from their homes spent Tuesday night in shelters. About 1,400 people were without water on Wednesday and another 18,000 needed to boil their drinking water for consumption. More than 44,000 people were without power.

Gregoire said the state and federal government, as well as volunteers, are responding in the hardest-hit areas, which include Lewis, Pacific, Grays Harbor and Kitsap counties.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials flew over the flooded areas on Wednesday, and the agency is preparing to send out crews to assess the damage.

The National Guard has dispatched about 400 troops to distressed areas. The Red Cross expects to coordinate the efforts of more than 500 volunteers from across the nation.

Two nursing homes in the Centralia area were evacuated because of the flood, said Robin Arnold-Williams, secretary of the state Department of Social and Health Services.

Residents of one of the homes, the 78-bed Evergreen Centralia Health and Rehabilitation Center, have spent the past few nights in a middle school and likely won't return to the damaged facility.

State Secretary of Health Mary Selecky said the biggest immediate health concern in the region is drinking water. People in the flooded areas are advised to boil their water, she said.

Beyond that, residents are being told to wear boots and gloves when cleaning their homes or wading through floodwaters because of raw sewage from overwhelmed sewers.

"This is not a time to play in puddles," Selecky said.

Longer-term health concerns include disposal of animal carcasses in agricultural areas so that they won't contaminate water supplies. Health officials also worry about mold and possible food shortages.

Crews working to repair I-5 discovered more than 100 feet of pavement damage near the West Street overpass in Chehalis. The base beneath the pavement also is damaged, the Department of Transportation said.

Draining several feet of water from I-5 near Chehalis was delayed on Wednesday because of a dispute between the state and local governments about the need to breach a dike.

The water had topped the dike during the flood and pooled over the freeway.

The Department of Transportation finally decided to go around local officials and breach the dike on state land.

"The governor has made it clear that we should do everything possible to get I-5 open," Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said in a statement. "This is an emergency."

After consulting with the Army Corps of Engineers, the state decided to breach the dike on state property "rather than waiting any longer for the city and county to take action," Hammond said.

Transportation spokesman Stan Suchan said the argument resulted in "hours of delay."

"That matters when it comes to I-5," he said. "At some point, we need to do what needs to be done to address this emergency and take the appropriate action."

Lewis County Commissioner Ron Averill said the city and county were concerned with liability and who was going to repair the Airport Dike once it was breached. County and city attorneys wanted assurances that the state would be responsible if breaching caused even more damage, and wanted the state to pay for repairing the dike later.

Now it's a state project, Averill said. If something goes wrong, he said, "They've got good lawyers up there at the governor's office."

The floodwaters are taking their time to recede in some communities.

Robert Scott, fire chief of Thurston County Fire District 1, in Rochester, said it's clearly the worst flood he's ever seen.

"In the past, it almost dropped off as fast as it rose. That's not happening. It's taking time for the water to find its way through places that haven't seen water for 500 years," he said.

In some areas of the state, the flood was just arriving on Wednesday.

As the flood crest moved down the Chehalis River toward the Pacific Coast, more areas were flooded, including Elma and Montesano, in Grays Harbor County.

Brent Meldrum has a medical transport business and stored six trucks at an equipment-rental place in Elma. At 3 a.m. Wednesday, the place was dry. By noon, it was under 4 feet of water. He got five of the six trucks out before he had to stop.

In Aberdeen, there were conflicting reports as to whether the flood would cause a problem. The river was expected to crest there about midnight, about the same time as high tide.

Aberdeen police spokesman Dave Johnson said some emergency officials were cautioning the city about a flood. But Larry Bledsoe, Aberdeen public-works director, said he is confident the city's system of dikes and pumps will prevent any serious damage.

At least three deaths have been blamed directly on the storm and its aftermath. Two hikers also were killed in a Cascade Mountains avalanche. And officials searched for a man in his 80s from Winlock, believed lost after falling into a creek behind his house.

Officials are still searching for people who may be stranded or in need of help.

Thurston County Sheriff Dan Kimball was in Rochester overseeing a door-to-door effort to look for people who might be trapped. Searchers scoured the area on horseback, in utility vehicles and in large military trucks.

Jeremy Osbun and his neighbor Josh Stevenson were standing off Highway 12 near Rochester, watching water that had surrounded their houses but hadn't damaged them.

They wondered what had happened to their neighbor.

"Our other neighbor floated by about 6 a.m. yesterday in a canoe. He was going to stick it out," Stevenson said. "We haven't seen him since."

Times reporters Hal Bernton, David Postman, Ralph Thomas and Maureen O'Hagan contributed to this report.
Andrew Garber: 360-326-8268 or agarber@seattletimes.com.