State Reeling Under Massive Flooding From Record Deluge

ED WALKER / SEATTLE TIMES: TOWERS DAMAGED (MAP NOT AVAILABLE IN ELECTRONIC VERSION)

Gov. Booth Gardner might have summed up the feelings of residents in almost half of Washington's counties: ``My state is falling apart on me.''

Today there is flooding on both sides of the Cascades Mountains. Roads are closed, bridges are submerged, railroad tracks are washed out. Hundreds of displaced residents woke up this morning in emergency shelters. Thousands have left their homes.

Yesterday, a man was lost in the swollen Snoqualmie River at Duvall. Firefighters rescued his wife and 6-month-old son.

In metropolitan Seattle, where more rain has fallen than in any November since record-keeping began, commuters are without the Interstate 90 floating bridge across Lake Washington. The blustery deluge that ended Saturday no doubt contributed to yesterday's sinking of the older bridge span.

``I don't know where this stands in flooding records, but it's the worst I can remember when you consider how many areas of the state are being affected,'' the governor said after touring Lewis County by air yesterday.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service in Seattle have been so busy keeping track of flood developments on two dozen rivers, they haven't had time to see how November 1990 compares with previous flood seasons.

Of those rivers, the ones draining the west slope of the Cascades and the Olympic range were receding today, with most below flood stage. East of the Cascades, more flooding is expected today

and tomorrow.

Two records were set at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport over the weekend:

-- The 10.05 inches of rain that has fallen this month beat the previous November high-water mark of 9.69 inches, measured in 1963. For those keeping track, the month doesn't end until Friday.

-- In the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Saturday, 3.56 inches of rain fell. The previous 24-hour record rainfall was 3.41 inches, set in 1959.

Statewide, the chance of rain today decreased, with sun breaks in the forecast. But there's still a chance of occasional showers, and record rainfall has so saturated low-lying areas that it will be weeks before Western Washington dries out.

The freezing level was to drop to as low as 1,000 feet - meaning much of the precipitation is falling as snow and will stay in the mountains, instead of compounding the problems downriver. Eight inches of snow was forecast for the Cascade passes overnight.

While colder temperatures are encouraging, that sort of forecast followed the flooding two weeks ago, when Gardner declared a state of emergency in Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, King and Grays Harbor counties. Last week he asked the White House to declare a disaster in three of those - Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish.

Major flooding concerns today were the Yakima River at Benton City in Benton County in Eastern Washington and the Chehalis River at Oakville. Both rivers were still well over flood stage - the Chehalis five feet at Centralia - causing evacuation of residential areas.

With last weekend's new drenching, Gardner has declared an emergency in 13 more counties - bringing the total to 18 of the state's 39 counties: Clallam, Pacific, Mason, Jefferson, Thurston, Lewis, Kitsap, Cowlitz, Pierce, Wahkiakum, Chelan, Kittitas and Yakima. The proclamation activates National Guard help and frees agencies to use state resources to help local governments cope.

After two weeks of flooding, some of the news today will ring familiar. But there are new twists as some residents mop up and others brace for more flooding:

-- The state is nearly out of sandbags, said Mark Stewart, spokesman for the state Department of Community Development. The National Guard will be transporting 100,000 more from New York tomorrow.

-- Sixteen state highways are closed, some in more than one location. Most notable: Highway 2 at Sultan, Grotto, Stevens Pass and Tumwater Canyon; Highway 20, the North Cascades Highway, between Sedro-Woolley and Concrete and at Marblemount; Highways 123 and 410 at Cayuse Pass in Pierce County; and Highway 542, the Mount Baker Highway, at Maple Falls in Whatcom County. Also, Highway 101 was closed at the Skokomish River in Mason County, between Hoodsport and Dosewallips.

-- A tower for transmission lines was toppled six miles north of Darrington in Snohomish County when the Sauk River eroded an embankment on which the tower stood. The lines linked Diablo Dam-area electricity generators on the Skagit River with Seattle-area power stations.

The resulting tension deformed up to six other towers, and Seattle City Light shut the line down. David Bell, manager of power dispatching for Seattle City Light said a parallel set of transmission lines was handling the load.

-- Rivers in arid Eastern Washington were running high: The Yakima River was to crest just downriver of Yakima, four feet over flood stage, at 6 p.m. today. Near Richland, at its confluence with the Columbia River, the Yakima was to crest at two feet over flood stage at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

The Wenatchee and Naches rivers were high but receding.

-- Last night, the Red Cross and local officials in six counties estimated that 2,125 people have been evacuated. The Red Cross had 20 emergency shelters in operation, spokeswoman Hope Tuttle said.

-- The unrelenting Skagit River continued to pour through a breached levee at Fir Island, the low-lying agricultural delta just downriver from Mount Vernon and one of the hardest-hit areas during the past two weeks of flooding.

-- Lewis County and the cities of Centralia and Chehalis, spared up to now in the latest flooding, were swamped last night. The meandering Chehalis River was distinguishable from the watery expanse on either side only by the trees along its banks.

-- A dozen washouts of Burlington Northern tracks - including a sizable one just south of Snohomish - cut off the main railroad line that crosses Stevens Pass. Amtrak passengers are being bused to or from Spokane, and freight trains will be diverted by way of Vancouver, Wash., and Pasco.

Just west of Stevens Pass, there is five feet of mud over the tracks, said Burlington Northern spokesman Howard Kallio. He estimated at least five days of work will be needed to open the line. Two freight trains are safely stranded between washouts.

-- Record flood levels were reached on the Cedar, Skykomish, Snoqualmie, Snohomish and Stillaguamish rivers in King and Snohomish counties.