Seattle flooding

[klook]

Hope all of you in the Seattle area (and Pacific NW in general) are doing OK. I'm in Atlanta but have been getting text messages from a friend in Seattle who's trying to get home to West Seattle from the northern suburbs. Two hours on the road so far, and they've only gotten a couple of miles down the road. Pretty scary, it sounds like.

[Suich]

1. It's ridiculous.

It's been raining solid since yesterday am. Tell your friend I5 seems to be moving ok...I can see it from my house.

[Papillon]

2. I left work at the Bangor Base

at 12:00 and what is normally a 20 min drive home took me 1 1/2 hours due to road closures. It's really bad. There is water over the road in many areas.

[liberalmuse]

3. Me and a few other co-workers were sent home early.

I'm in Bothell, and the flooding is bad in some parts here. It took me 5 minutes to get home taking the freeway, but the off ramp was flooded pretty bad. Bothell-Everett Hwy. going north is pretty bad in some parts, too. There are some houses below me that are flooded and the fire department is helping them out now. Luckily they are just across the street. I hope the rest of my co-workers fared well since they live near the flooding rivers. I live a few blocks from the Sammamish but up on a hill. What a mess.

[LisaM]

4. It started with some snow on Saturday....

Our back yard goes down into a creek, which is now a lake. Our house is okay so far, since we are above it. Pretty soggy, and the commute was not good, made far worse by drivers who simply do not understand to slow down in heavy rain - not just because they can hydroplane or hit standing water, but also because the larger vehicles really obscure visibility for smaller ones. If I ran the world, among other things, larger vehicles would be more constrained as far as how they make it less safe for smaller cars......anyway, it's pretty bad right now and I'm dreading the commute home - not the bus ride itself, but getting from the bus stop to my house. I'm guessing the footbridge I normally take will be completely flooded and the first alternate route will probably have standing water on the road. The second alternate route is unsafe because it's dark and there is no shoulder and no sidewalks, but it's probably the driest alternative.

[flamingyouth]

8. You're out by Northgate, aren't you?

It's awful out there. I hope your house is okay.

I was out by there around noon seeing my doctor and Meridian was closed just south of 105th and the street was a lake.

This is nasty. I mean, last year it rained in our bedroom, but this is horrible.

[LisaM]

11. Yes, though we are on the other side of the mall

I know where you're talking about, though. It was bad where I am (the creek was ferocious) but we didn't have any sinkholes!!!!!

[maxsolomon]

5. its stopped downtown as of 4:30.

so quit whining! ;-)

friggin pineapple express, ruining our skiing base...

[uppityperson]

6. Sounds like a lot of WA and OR got slammed

Especially the coastal areas, wind gusts hit 126 mph. I'm in the rain/wind shadow and don't have to go anywhere, but would have a hard time getting to Seattle, Olympia, Portland due to trees down, landslides, flooding. I-5 will be closed for (up to) 3 days, meaning go through Yakima to go Seattle-Portland, which is wild. Edmonds ferry dock had water up to car level at one point (high tide and winds/rain). I hope all in flooded areas are doing ok.

[icymist]

7. Port Orchard checking in.

We had 7.5 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. The highways 16 and 3 intersection at Gorst is mostly underwater with only one lane operating. I hear there is a giant sink-hole at Mile Hill road and Bethel, a major intersection in Port Orchard. What a mess! And it's still raining!

[rhett o rick]

17. In Beamer town I measured 11 inches at my house. Not official tho. nm

[eridani]

9. Looks like southbound I-5 is closed at Chehalis

Water on the road, and the highway bulletin board said no detours available.

[uppityperson]

10. Link here for WSDOT road closure

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/news/update/
I read that you can get by there by driving over to Yakima and back. Pretty funny, but not really. I hope they get it cleared soon.

[SeattleGirl]

12. Not the first time that's happened in that area.

What a freakin' mess!

[uppityperson]

13. Large trucks causing traffic jams in flood-affected areas (and a picture)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004054240_weblewis05m.html

Large trucks causing traffic jams in flood-affected areas

By Seattle Times staff

Attempting to bypass designated detour routes in Lewis County, large trucks and semitrailers are causing major traffic jams, adding to the flood-induced problems in the area.

The large vehicles are trying to skip the state-designated detours and use other side roads that are not built to handle the traffic, said the Lewis County Sheriff's Office.

In the last 24 hours, the sheriff's office said semitrailers have gotten stuck on narrow turns on these smaller roads, blocking some of the only through roads for local traffic.

The Lewis County Sheriff's Office said any semitrailers trying to avoid state-designated detour routes will be rerouted back to Centralia Alpha Road south to SR-508. They will not be able to enter Centralia, where the state suffered the most severe flooding.

[uppityperson]

14. Heroic neighbors fought flood's fury, but many animals couldn't be saved

Looks like I-5 will be out for a while, road damage as well as sub-road damage. I'm watching to see what happens in grocery stores. Here's the article on cows and neighbors helping each other...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004055780_floodcurtis06m.html

Heroic neighbors fought flood's fury, but many animals couldn't be saved

When the waters came raging toward the dairy barns, Roy Osborn Jr.'s cows did a strange thing. Often wary of humans, they crowded close to Osborn as though they knew he offered them their last hope of salvation. The 22-year-old dairy farmer did all he could to rescue those 250 Jerseys and Holsteins. For several body-numbing hours early Monday morning, he waded and sometimes swam through the floodwaters to herd as many cows as he could to a neighbor's higher ground.

(clip)

Here in the Boistfort Valley, friends and neighbors repeatedly came together to help rescue lives — human and animal — from the rampaging river that swamped homes and barns with water as deep as 12 feet. The flood grew so powerful that it picked up benches and cows and left them hanging in trees, placed a trailer upside down on top of a blue Geo and deposited thousands of logs in fields.
(clip)

Osborn could not save most of his family's animals, losing an estimated 180 cows. Many died in Osborn's milking barn, where some animals left behind sought safety in a familiar place. They died as the water rose to the top of the structure. Some tried to swim to safety. Only one cow survived, perching on a silage pile.

When the floodwaters kept rising, Osborn joined his cows on the higher ground of the Kesting family farm. So did other neighbors, who knew from a 1996 flood that this was a refuge. But this time, even Kesting's farm was flooded...(more)

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

15. A lot of basement flooding in Seattle.

Some trees blown over . One client tells me in over fifty five years never has there been water damage like that. That,s Queen Ann, over in Greenlake the same, basement flooding ,Crown Hill and on north bound. Just from what I have seen thus far. Wind damage to roofs which caused interior water damage as well . Insurance inspectors are five and six days out. This means state wide, not good at all.

[uppityperson]

16. I talked with Jr and friends who live in Seattle, none got flooded

which is good. Jr is living on own for first time, glad didn't get flooded. Best wishes to all who got damaged. Turns out last yr's wind blew 3 trees onto a cousin's house, they just got back in and I'm waiting to hear how they did this time. You doing ok?