A flood watch had been cancelled as of 6:15 a.m. today for Clallam, Jefferson and Grays Harbor counties, although it will remain in effect through Sunday in Mason County.
For the Bogachiel River, the warning ended at 9:41 p.m. Friday. As of 11 a.m. today, it stood at 31.89 feet, having dropped from the 40 feet gauged at midday Friday.
The most swollen of North Olympic Peninsula Rivers, it flooded at 37 feet. The Elwha River also topped its banks Friday but by only 0.11 feet before receding.
The National Weather Service also continued to warn of an increased threat of landslides along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Hood Canal and Admiralty Inlet.
A gale watch off the Pacific coast was reduced to small craft warnings through 9 p.m. Sunday — until 6 a.m. Sunday on the Strait of Juan de Fuca — with west swells 15 to 18 feet and northwest winds rising to 30-45 mph.
Small craft warnings also covered inland waters, including the San Juan Islands, with northwest winds 12 to 45 knots and swells 15 to 18 feet.
High surf warnings on the coast will remain in effect until noon today.
A winter storm warning continues through 10 a.m. Sunday on Hurricane Ridge from heavy snows forecast for this afternoon and tonight. Snowfall could accumulate to 10 to 15 inches before tapering off Sunday morning.
No new power outages or highway closures had been reported today by the public utility districts in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
The last highways reported reopened by the state Department of Transportation were U.S. Highway 101 at Milepost 319, cleared of fallen trees at 5:45 a.m. today, and state Highway 112, where high water had receded by 8:18 a.m. today.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Earlier story
A few North Olympic Peninsula roads remain flooded late Friday afternoon as swollen rivers began to drop.
Flood warnings had been issued for the Dungeness and Elwha Rivers in Clallam County, and flooding of the Bogachiel River had closed state Highway 110 as of 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Clallam County Public Utility District had restored power to customers served by the Sunland Substation after the Bonneville Power Administration had what spokesman Michael Howe called a “blink” early Friday.
Customers across the Clallam PUD had power restored as of 8:20 a.m., except for a few homes on Oil City Road in the West End, he said.
Oil City Road also remained closed by flooding on the Hoh River, said Jefferson County Emergency Manager Bob Hamlin.
Hamlin said Kelly Road remained flooded by the Duckabush River, as did nearby Shorewood Road. Both are southwest of Brinnon near Hood Canal.
Jefferson County PUD reported all service had been restored as of 9 a.m. following a half-dozen small outages Thursday.
Hamlin said eastern Jefferson County rivers had spiked with the storm’s onset Thursday, “but I’m staring to see a little bit of flattening of that” as of 11 a.m. Friday.
“Most of this has moved over to the other side of the ‘big pond,’” he said in reference to Puget Sound, east of which the Cascade Mountains were bracing for heavy weather.
According to the state Department of Transportation, these highways on the Peninsula remained closed as of 3 p.m. a.m.:
— State Highway 112 — Milepost 23 to Milepost 29: Closed as of 7:39 a.m. Friday by water over road.
— U.S. Highway 101 — Delays as of 8:42 a.m. due to slides at Lake Crescent.
These closed roads had been reopened by Friday afternoon:
— State Highway 112 — Milepost 3.7, one lane closed to slides; milepost 4.4, both lanes shut by fallen trees; milepost 23.1, both lanes closed by fallen trees; cleared at 3:36 p.m.
Also, southbound U.S. Highway 101 was closed by a collision at 1:55 p.m. near Waketickeh Creek along Hood Canal at Milepost 319. The wreck was cleared by 2:30 p.m., according to the Department of Transportation.
Hamlin and Wisecup both cautioned motorists not to try to cross flooded roadways. Water as shallow as 6 inches can sweep vehicles away, they said.
“The standard routine is: ‘Don’t drive in the water,’” Hamlin said.
He said damage from the storm that came onshore Thursday morning had not proved as severe as that from the Aug. 29 windstorm that wreaked widespread destruction across the Peninsula.
The heavy rains and high winds of Dec. 9-11, 2014, Hamlin added, still set the standard for weather havoc in recent years.
In the present storm, winds gusts topped at 50 mph in Port Townsend in the 24 hours ending at noon Friday.
Top winds at other locations included 30 mph in Forks, 26 mph in Port Angeles, and 15 mph in Sequim, according to the National Weather Service.
Rainfall at those locations for the same period totaled 5.42 inches in Forks, 1.37 inches in Port Angeles, 0.95 inches in Sequim and 0.58 inches in Port Townsend.
A flood watch remained in effect through 10 a.m. Sunday, with the weather service predicting heavy rain tonight and Saturday night, although at least three rivers on the Peninsula were receding by 4 p.m. Friday.
The Bogachiel River was gauged at 38.29 feet — it floods at 37 feet — near La Push at 3 p.m., dropping 2 feet in as many hours.
The Dungeness measured 6.53 feet at 3:30 p.m. Flood stage is 7 feet.
The Elwha, having been gouged at 20.11 feet — 0.11 inch above flood stage — at noon Friday had fallen to 18.57 feet by:1 3 p.m. All the measurements were provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.
For current streamflow conditions, visit TinyURL.com/tinyurl-pdn-rivers.
On Hurricane Ridge, an inch of new snow is possible tonight, with 7-11 inches possible today and a similar snowfall likely tonight before dropping to less than an inch each Sunday and Monday.
Rain was forecast on the Ridge for Monday night and Tuesday, but snow and snow showers were predicted to resume Tuesday night and continue through Thursday.
Infrared satellite images taken by the weather service showed the storm spreading across southern British Columbia and over central Alberta and much of Saskatchewan by this afternoon.
More of the system has yet to reach the United States, trailing hundreds of miles into the North Pacific Ocean.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Earlier story
High winds hit parts of the North Olympic Peninsula early Thursday afternoon, carrying rain that sparked a flood watch through Sunday on the region’s rivers.
Olympic National Park officials had closed eight park facilities from Kalaloch to Hurricane Ridge — including Elwha, Heart o’ the Hills, Hoh, Mora, Quinault and Sol Duc — by 5 p.m., expecting winds to gust up to 60 mph.
Rangers reported some vehicles had been damaged by falling trees at Barnes Point on Lake Crescent. Also, U.S. Highway 101 in the park had been cleared of two downed trees. No injuries were reported.
ONP officials made no prediction of when they might reopen, other than “once the storm passes,” said Park Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum.
As early as 12:40 p.m., emergency dispatchers had sent crews to a report of downed power lines on Eaglemount Road in Jefferson County. Many more reports of downed lines, fallen trees and closed roads soon followed.
They included trees closing both lanes of state Highway 112 at Milepost 4 east of the Makah reservation at 2:30 p.m. The road was cleared about an hour later but blocked again at the same time at Milepost 38. The closure was cleared by 5 p.m.
At Sequim’s John Wayne Marina, tides and winds measured at 42 mph blew a ferrocement-hulled sailboat boat from its anchorage onto shore at the south parking lot. The vessel’s owner was not immediately identified.
“It is absolutely sunk and sitting on the bottom and high and dry,” said marina Harbormaster Ron Amundson.
There was no fuel on board, and the vessel leaked no oil, according to the Coast Guard. Amundson said the boat probably would remain derelict and “will probably be there for some time.”
The Clallam County Utility District reported electric outages to 1,240 customers in Diamond Point, Neah Bay, Joyce, and west of Port Angeles as of 3:15 p.m.
By 5 p.m., most had power restored, with about 140 still without power, most in the Eden Valley area, said Mike Howe, the utility’s communications manager.
Customers can report outages to 360-452-9771 or 800-542-7859.
Jefferson County PUD said about 1,000 customers had lost power in about six outages Thursday afternoon from Gardiner to Marrowstone Island. About 180 remained without electricity as of 4 p.m.
Customers can report outages at 360-385-8253 or 360-385-5800 or online at www.jeffpud.org/outage-info/.
Emergency services managers across the region were warning residents to beware of flooded roads and fallen trees this weekend in what the National Weather Service called “a potent storm” out of the west-northwest.
“If there’s water overtopping the road you’re on, turn around, don’t drown,” said Jayme Wisecup, program coordinator for the emergency management unit of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
Even 6 inches of water flowing over a road can carry away a vehicle, she said.
Wisecup cited U.S. Weather Service predictions of up to 5 inches of rain in the West End and winds gusting up to 50 mph Friday.
They had gusted Thursday afternoon to 47 mph north of Cape Flattery, 52 mph at Destruction Island, 35 mph at Quillayute State Airport, 46 mph at Ellis Mountain, 39 mph at Hurricane Ridge and in Port Angeles, 37 mph in Sequim and 35 mph in Port Townsend.
In the 12 hours ended by 5 p.m., the National Weather Service also reported rainfall amounts of 2.95 inches at Quillayute Airport, 2.01 inches in Forks, 1.85 inches at Toms Creek in Olympic National Forest, 0.50 inches at Ellis Mountain and 0.40 inches at Waterhole south of Hurricane Ridge.
“Wet soil and windy trees are a bad combination,” Wisecup told Peninsula Daily News.
The snow level was at 2,500 feet Thursday afternoon, forecast to rise to 8,000 feet by this afternoon.
If there was good news in the weather outlook, it was for moderate tides that won’t top out for the month until Nov. 25, Wisecup said. Even so, northwest swells were forecast from 18 to 25 feet.
“The surfers are loving it,” she said.
Wisecup said mobile command centers had been sent to the West End and in the East End of the county by Thursday morning as well as the county courthouse.
Volunteer teams were receiving bulletins about what to expect.
Those teams included amateur radio operators whom Wisecup called “super-important to us because they’re our windshield-survey people when they see any type of overtopping [of watercourses] or wind damage.”
Community Emergency Response Teams — neighborhood citizens groups throughout the county — also had been alerted.
“These are neighborhood folks,” Wisecup said. CERT teams are trained to meet live-saving and life-sustaining needs when disasters may overload other first responders, especially in isolated areas.
She and Keppie Keplinger of the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management both said the duration of the anticipated storm concerned them. The National Weather Service on Thursday posted flood warnings and high-wind advisories that could last until 10 a.m. Sunday.
As of midday Thursday, National Weather Service radar showed the first segment of the storm well across the Peninsula’s Pacific coast and Vancouver Island — with a long trail of inclement weather extending into the North Pacific.
The same radar image showed the Peninsula’s “rain shadow” extending eastward from around Clallam Bay past Admiralty Inlet.
The national park last closed all entrances to the park Aug. 29 when hurricane-force winds ripped through the area. Some facilities remained closed until Sept. 2, when the Mora Campground reopened.
The shutdown was the park’s first total closure since President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in 1938.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
