Water Recedes, Leaving Problems Behind Landslides, High Water Cut Off Highways, Phone Service In Oregon

With floodwaters receding across much of Oregon, winterweary residents tangled Thursday with nagging problems lingering from a week of ice, snow, rain and wind.

“I found one dry cigar. I figured, ‘What the hell. I’m smoking it,”’ said Dean Brown, a painter and trailer park manager in Ashland whose mobile home was inundated when Bear Creek broke through a dike.

A landslide severed a fiber-optic cable between Rogue River and Gold Hill, knocking out long-distance telephone service to 40,000 lines in the Rogue River and Grants Pass areas.

The Rogue River, which flooded dozens of homes Wednesday, had crested by Thursday evening and was gradually receding.

Interstate 5 reopened after being closed several hours in the Ashland area. Slides and high water closed or restricted traffic on dozens of other highways, including Oregon 35 on Mount Hood.

Some 21,000 residents of Ashland and Talent had to get their water from National Guard tankers after floodwaters cut off treatment plants.

National Guardsmen were also filling sandbags and helping in road repair and debris removal.

Forecasters predicted most western Oregon streams would subside through Friday, though many remained above flood stage. Warmer temperatures and snow melt were keeping rivers and streams high in eastern Oregon.

High water persisted on the Tualatin River in the Portland suburbs, where water seeped into dozens of homes and apartment units. Worse flooding occurred along the river last February.

The Tualatin River was holding steady about 4 feet above flood stage and about 4 feet below the peak reached in the massive flood last year.

Amtrak substituted buses for trains between Portland and Seattle and offered only limited service east out of Portland.

Forecasters said cooler, showery conditions would reduce the flood danger headed into the weekend. Snow advisories were posted for the Cascades and the northeast mountains, with the snow level lowering to 2,000 feet in the north Cascades.

Other parts of the West took a pounding Thursday from rain and melting snow.

In Yosemite National Park, 2,200 people were trapped, Reno’s 24-hour casinos closed for the first time anyone could recall, and flooding forced the evacuation of up to 50,000 people from neighboring California cities.

High water and mudslides closed major roads in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, where 70 counties have been declared disaster areas since a nonstop string of storms began Dec. 26. At least 16 deaths have been blamed on the weather, and damage is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

California’s problems caused the most evacuations. North of Sacramento, in Yuba City and Marysville, officials ordered as many as 50,000 residents to leave Thursday night hours before the Feather River broke through a levee.

Up to 7 inches of rain caused the worst flooding in Reno in more than 40 years. The Truckee River swamped motels, restaurants and wedding chapels as it roared down streets carrying off trees, clothes, toys, porches and a barbecue pit. Fifteen hotel guests were rescued via a fire truck ladder after the building was surrounded by roiling water 4 feet deep.

The flooding also shut down state government offices in Reno and Carson City, the Reno-Tahoe International Airport and the Mustang Ranch brothel. In Yosemite, the Merced River flooded the park’s three major roads, forcing employees and visitors to hole up in lodges, playing board games, reading old newspapers and drinking coffee.