Northwest Can’t Get A Break, Braces For Gusts Washington Death Toll Climbs To At Least 8; Puget Sound Mudslides Threaten Homes

Already battered by two winter storms, then deluged by rain and melting snow, a soggy Northwest braced Tuesday for another storm system that threatened wind gusts to 80 mph and more flooding.

Steady rain led to numerous mudslides that threatened homes and prompted evacuations in the Puget Sound region.

The Washington death toll from weather-related accidents since last week climbed to at least eight on Tuesday when a tree fell onto a car in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, killing a man inside. Three people have died in Oregon.

A new Pacific storm system was expected to bring winds of 40 to 50 mph, with gusts to 70 or 80 mph, to the Washington coast and the northwestern corner of Washington state through today, the National Weather Service said.

The Puget Sound region and southwest Washington were expected to see winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts to 60 mph by early on New Year’s Day.

Washington state Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn said insured damage to businesses and homes from the recent storms likely will top $125 million. Some estimates put the eventual total at nearly three times that amount.

On Tuesday, Gov. Mike Lowry declared four Eastern Washington counties - Asotin, Kittitas, Skamania and Yakima - to be in a state of emergency. That means 19 of the state’s 39 counties - 15 of them on the west side of the state - are covered by emergency proclamation due to winter weather. About 150 National Guard members were dispensing 180,000 sandbags and deploying 20 or 30 humvees to help local emergency workers get around.

A one-two punch of snowstorms dumped about 2 feet of snow in Western Washington since last Thursday and then hammered Washington and Oregon with rain. Mudslides and avalanches blocked roads and stranded holiday travelers until Monday, when rain began flushing away the snow and causing flooding in many areas.

Four mudslides on Seattle’s steep Magnolia Bluff prompted firefighters to evacuate residents Tuesday from 18 homes on a hillside. One house slipped from its foundations, fire department spokeswoman Georgia Taylor said.

Also on Tuesday, at least two West Seattle homes were shifting off their foundations in the soggy soil, and mudslides damaged several waterfront homes on Camano Island.

Tuesday’s weather-related fatality “was just kind of a freak accident,” said Redmond police Officer Kristi Wilson. The tree was standing in swollen Bear Creek alongside a roadway when it gave way and crashed, roots and all. A 47-year-old Redmond man was killed and a child in the car was injured and airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

At the height of the storms, 250,000 utility customers were blacked out in Western Washington. Puget Sound Power & Light had all but 34,000 customers back on line at midday Tuesday.

On the bright side Tuesday, one of the three main routes across the Cascade Range was reopened - U.S. 12 through White Pass. Interstate 90 across Snoqualmie Pass and U.S. 2 through Stevens Pass remained closed.