Emergency Declared For Much Of Western Washington Residents Evacuated From Rural Areas As Flooding, Warm Weather Continues

Unseasonably warm downpours delivered by the “Pineapple Express” derailed daily routines for thousands of people Wednesday in Western Washington.

With every major river in the region over flood stage, residents were evacuated from several rural areas and small towns, including a few east of the Cascade Mountains.

“Right now I sit here and watch stuff float by and hope I don’t see a house,” said Phil Back, an unemployed boilermaker, who has lived in a mobile home beside the Lewis River upstream from Woodland for about five years.

Gov. Mike Lowry declared a state of emergency in Chelan, Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Jefferson, King, Lewis, Mason, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, Whatcom and Yakima counties, and the National Guard was activated for flood duty.

National Red Cross officials were being consulted about a potential request to mobilize volunteers from outside the state.

Landslides and high water resulted in road closures and traffic restrictions on at least 17 state and federal highways, including U.S. 2 and 12, two of the four east-west routes through the Cascade Mountains.

At least 130 people had gone to emergency shelters in four counties by midday Wednesday. Red Cross officials customarily figure those in shelters comprise about 10 percent of the total evacuees.

In neighboring British Columbia, Canadian officials said more than 100 people were evacuated from homes in the Fraser Valley, which extends eastward about 80 miles from Vancouver. Many were in the path of floodwaters from the Nooksack River.

East of the Cascades, more than 20 residents were evacuated from homes along the Yakima River near Cle Elum.

The flood drew a crowd Tuesday night to the Bridge Bender Tavern on the bank of the Cowlitz River in Kelso, in southwest Washington.

“This is phenomenal,” said one patron, Jerry Dean of Longview, a Burlington Northern railroad switch operator. “I love natural disasters - as long as no one loses a life.”

Heather Knox, a local Red Cross spokeswoman, estimated the organization would spend $500,000 to $2.5 million on relief efforts in Washington.

As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, 4.47 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours at Stampede Pass in the Cascades. Other 24-hour precipitation totals were: North Bend, 3.25 inches; Seattle, 2.29 inches; Tacoma, 2.50 inches, and Olympia, 2.43 inches, the National Weather Service said.

“Pineapple Express” is how weather experts describe the warm, wet, blustery fall storms that sweep into the region from the South Pacific, often following heavy snowfall in the mountains.

One of the worst in memory occurred over Thanksgiving weekend in 1990, when 20 rivers in the state overflowed, two people died and thousands were forced from their homes.

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