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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Dry weather forecast as Wash. flood cleanup begins

Associated Press
SEATTLE — Residents and business owners cleaning up from floods across much of Washington state got a welcome forecast Monday for clearing skies and little or no chance of rain through next weekend. The National Weather Service predicted the last drippiness following a damp but downpour-free weekend would end by Monday night in Western Washington, followed by partly cloudy and sometimes sunny skies across practically all of the state through Sunday. “It will be dry, and that’s good for the rivers,” Danny Mercer, a weather service meteorologist, told The News Tribune of Tacoma. “There’s no precipitation at all,” Mercer said. “It looks pretty guaranteed for the rest of the week.” The last rivers above flood stage Monday morning, the Cedar in the suburbs southeast of Seattle and the Chehalis in western Lewis County, were receding slowly and no further significant damage was expected. East of the Cascades, flooding also was coming to an end along the Yakima River. Officials in hard-hit areas asked those with damage to file reports quickly, usually with county departments of emergency management. Operators at the Pierce County Emergency Operations Center have received about 600 flood-related calls, spokeswoman Barbara Nelson said. “We need people to be really careful when they’re cleaning up,” Nelson told The News Tribune. In Carnation, east of Seattle in the Snoqualmie River Valley, Jim Fay was working with a contractor on the three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot rambler house he owns and rents to a man with a 15-year-old son. The house, built by his father in 1965, had never flooded until last week, when his renter was chased by 16 inches of water. Repairs will take “month and months,” Fay told The Associated Press, adding that he has flood insurance. “We have to tear out all the walls, inside and out, all the cabinets … the linoleum on the floors and the particleboard underneath,” he said. Corliss Serka said her home in Carnation got 2 to 3 feet of water. “We’re trying to clean up,” Serka said. “We’re in a state of uncertainty. It’s soaked and deep in mud, in some places 2 to 3 inches of silt. It was covered in silt. … “It’s kind of an adventure. We are so blessed. I’m not so overwhelmed by the mess as I am by the show of friendship and the loving kindness of friends.” Lingering trouble spots included Stanwood, near the mouth of the Stillaguamish River north of Everett; Index, east of Everett, where a slide blocked a road used by 100 people; and Richland, where authorities warned that wells could be contaminated by floodwater, and high water threatened some livestock. In Stanwood, a washed-out levee left about 20 houses isolated by high water south of the town’s sewage lagoon. Several homeowners said their damage was less than in past flooding because they had raised the level of the houses. The Mount Index River Road along the south fork of the Skykomish River was hit by an avalanche of mud, snow and trees Saturday morning, and more debris came down over the weekend as crews tried to clear the mess. Richland and West Richland residents had to scramble Sunday to keep livestock clear of water that rose as deep as 6 feet over some pastures. Greg Sullivan used a canoe to help save a neighbor’s cows. the Tri-City Herald reported. Hard feelings persisted during the cleanup in Pacific, where residents said they received little notice before the Army Corps of Engineers released water from Mud Mountain Dam on Thursday, inundating parts of the town between Seattle and Tacoma. “I’m furious,” Roberta Hales, 68, told The News Tribune. “Nobody told us. I came home at 7 p.m. and in an hour and a half we were walking around in 4 feet of water.” A corps spokeswoman, Patricia Graesser, said the same amount of water, 11,700 cubic feet of water per second, was released to make room for runoff from additional rain and snowmelt during flooding in November 2006 without causing significant damage. The release was halted once the corps learned of the flooding in Pacific, she said.