BRINNON — The storm that flooded areas of Brinnon this week was the most severe in recent memory, residents said.
“People know they live on a floodplain but it’s never been this bad,” said Rob Brown, who manages the Geoduck Tavern, as flood waters receded and a new storm threatened Thursday.
“Although each year, it seems to get worse,” he added.
Joy Baisch, who runs a bed and breakfast with her husband, Joe, said: “We’ve been here 23 years and have never seen waters this high.
“Both rivers have had their way with the community.”
Brinnon is located where the Duckabush and the Dosewallips rivers empty into the sound, making it a natural place for high water.
Eight people were rescued from two homes — one on Kelly Road and another in the Canal Tracts neighborhood — after flood water had trapped them inside.
Six more home were flooded, according to the Brinnon firefighters, who worked all night to help those endangered by high water. Some families evacuated on their own, said Brinnon Fire Chief Patrick Nicholson.
Brinnon Fire Station 42 on Shorewood Drive also flooded.
Jefferson County commissioners unanimously declared a state of emergency on Thursday.
This allows the county to hire contractors for immediate road or infrastructure repairs without the standard procurement process, County Administrator Philip Morley.
It also qualifies the county for federal reimbursement should the statewide damage reach a certain level.
This reimbursement is mostly intended for public facilities and roads but can also be used for private property damage resulting from the storm, Morley said.
Throughout the two storms that blew in this week, temperatures remained relatively high.
Warm weather contributed to this year’s flood severity according to Steven Moore, a Red Cross AmeriCorps volunteer who is managing shelter efforts at the Brinnon Community Center, 306144 U.S. Highway 101, which was opened Wednesday to those displaced from their homes.
“If it was colder and the water fell as snow, it would stay in the mountains as a solid for a while longer,” Moore said.
“As rain, it can flood up the rivers pretty quickly.”
The Duckabush River reached nearly 8 feet, according to the US Geological Survey measurement site near Brinnon on Wednesday.
Four feet is considered to be flood stage, said Bob Hamlin, Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management director.
By about 2 p.m. Thursday, the Duckabush was down to about 5 feet.
No measurement was available for the Dosewallips River, but its rise also was extreme, Hamlin said.
Moore and three volunteers with the American Red Cross Olympic Peninsula Chapter moved four cots into the Brinnon Community Center.
The Red Cross has also brought in a trailer with extra cots and other supplies that will be brought out as needed, according to volunteer Sue Pechina.
“We want people to know that we are here if they need help.” Pachina said.
“We expect that we won’t hear how many people are actually out of their homes,” she said.
“In a small community like this people who are temporarily homeless are often taken in by their neighbors until they can return to their own place.”
Three displaced people stayed in the shelter on Wednesday night: an unidentified couple and Brinnon Community Center Manager Sandy Peterson, who returned to her home in the Lazy C development near the Dosewallips River to find that it was surrounded by water and completely inaccessible.
Peterson returned to the shelter and stayed the night, expecting to return on Thursday for another attempt of getting into the house.
A crisis was averted because Peterson’s dog was at the groomer and was not stranded when the waters rose.
Kirkland residents Deb and Danny Piecora heard of the flooding on Wednesday and raced over to Brinnon to inspect their riverside property.
It was inaccessible.
“When we got there yesterday you couldn’t tell the front lawn from the river,” Deb Piecora said.
“It’s gone down, but the yard is nothing but mud and the floors are all warped because the house was completely flooded.”
To rescue a family trapped in their house on Kelly Road, Brinnon fire fighters secured a line on which all five family members — two adults, a 15-year-old, a 10-year-old and an infant — could leave.
They were assisted by four state Department of Fish and Wildlife officers, three of whom swift water rescue technicians.
A swift water rescue team also helped three residents leave their flooded home in the Canal Tracts neighborhood, which is across the river from Kelly Road, Nicholson said.
Flooding also severely damaged the Brinnon Fire Station 42 on Shorewood Drive, which at one point had 5 feet of water inside the apparatus bay.
“It is likely the station will remain closed indefinitely,” Nicholson said.
Two fire vehicles inside are also damaged, Nicholson said.
He estimated at least $200,000 worth of damage, adding that fire fighters won’t know the extent of the damage until the water recedes.
Fearing more flooding on Appaloosa Drive in the Lazy C neighborhood, firefighters stayed the night Wednesday, contacting home owners and offering assistance, including sandbagging.
The neighborhood had threatened to flood on Tuesday, and was considered to be at risk of additional flooding Wednesday.
A few miles away on the Dosewallips River, a dike failed on Matthews Lane and at least two homes were damaged by floodwaters, Nicholson said.
Hamlin said that at least 100 trees fell and blocked roads, with many of them taken care of on the spot.
Hamlin cautioned people not to attempt to remove trees if any loose wires are in the vicinity.
Hamlin said he has kept the public apprised of the emergency situations through its automated Nixle text notification system, with six messages going out this week.
“I don’t want to send out too many messages and want to be sure that everything I send out is useful information,” Hamlin said.
“In a power failure, there is the tendency to use generators but people need to be very cautious about where they place them.” Hamlin said.
“If you put a generator on your porch near an open window the exhaust fumes could get sucked into the house and you could have some sick or dead people.”
Hamlin said that generators should be as far away from the house as possible and never placed in a carport or a garage.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.