235 Still Stranded In Ferry County Rivers Still Taking On Creek Water; Some Evacuated

About 235 Ferry County families remained stranded Thursday because of washed-out roads or high water from a cloudburst.

“Things aren’t improving a lot,” said Mary Masingale, a dispatcher for the Ferry County Public Works Department. “Some of the rivers are taking on water that previously was in the creeks.”

Authorities were attempting to evacuate a few people with known medical problems, but few people were using a shelter the Red Cross established in the Kiwanis building in Republic.

One heart patient was airlifted from a home along the flooding Sanpoil River south of Republic as a precaution, and ground crews planned to remove four other stranded residents. None of them requested help.

“We’re getting in to the people we know about while the weather is holding,” said Karen Webber, ambulance director for Emergency Medical Services District 1.

Most of the homes cut off by Tuesday night’s storm are in the Republic and Curlew areas, but there also were a few along the Sanpoil River south of Republic and in the Orient area on the east side of Sherman Pass.

The pass was still closed Thursday, and officials said it may be weeks before the badly damaged state highway is reopened. State Highway 21 also remained closed north and south of Republic. There was water over the road to the north. The road was severed by a cave-in 13 miles south of town and by a washed-out bridge a dozen miles farther south.

Masingale said residents between those points should be able to get out if necessary by a “backwoods” route officials have mapped out. “That’s how we’re getting to Curlew now: through the woods,” she said.

County officials were studying the washed-out Sherman Creek bridge on the Inchelium-Kettle Falls Road Thursday, but hadn’t determined how long repairs will take. Other county crews were busy fixing more washed-out culverts on gravel roads than they could count. Workers focused on washouts that cut off houses, but the job was still overwhelming.

“We’re going to need some help,” Masingale said. “Ferry County can’t afford the damage that has been done.”

No damage estimate has been made, but preliminary guesses are that the county’s costs will exceed $1 million. County officials declared an emergency in hopes of attracting federal or state disaster assistance.

Private damages also may be substantial. A home near Malo and some near the county fairgrounds at Republic were flooded, and “a lot” of wells were put out of service, Masingale said.