By The Associated Press
IN THE WAKE of the torrential storm that blew through parts of Western Washington all day Sunday and into Monday:
I-90 westbound at Snoqualmie Pass reopens after rockslide
SNOQUALMIE PASS — A westbound lane of Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass reopened late Tuesday afternoon after rocks earlier rolled down a slope and hit three vehicles.
A geotechnical expert who checked the area said it was sufficiently stable with the addition of a concrete barrier to deflect any new falling rocks, state Transportation spokeswoman Meagan Lott said.
Officials opened one westbound lane at 4 p.m. and hoped to reopen the second within a few hours.
The rocks that came down before 5 a.m. Tuesday about six miles east of the summit were hit by two trucks and an SUV. One man was treated for a minor injury.
Eastbound traffic was not affected.
The rockslide came down west of the old snow shed that was removed last April, Lott said.
It is in the same area where there has been a lot of blasting in recent years, and where bolts have been drilled to secure the rock face. The work is part of a project to improve the interstate over the mountain pass, especially for winter travel.
Lott said it was impossible to tell if the rockslide was caused by the blasting and drilling or a consequence of heavy rain in recent days in the area known for instability.
A 40-year-old man in the SUV was treated for a minor injury at Kittitas Valley Healthcare hospital in Ellensburg.
A 37-year-old man in the SUV was checked at the hospital as a precaution, State Patrol Trooper Darren Wright said.
One truck and the SUV were totaled, the State Patrol said. The other truck was able to drive away.
The “good-sized” rocks had been pushed to the side of the road, and the damaged vehicles had been removed by 9 a.m. But the westbound lanes remained closed as officials checked the safety of the scene.
“It’s scary to have something big in the road when you come around a corner,” Wright said.
The landslide danger remains high in western Washington because of the heavy rain that fell Sunday and Monday in a storm. Landslides closed highways in several counties, and a landslide at Hoquiam knocked three houses off their foundations.
Quinault declare emergency due to landslides, washouts
TAHOLAH (AP) — The Quinault Indian Nation has declared an emergency because of landslides and washouts caused by the heavy weekend rain on the reservation on the Washington coast.
The tribe says the main access road to the reservation, Highway 109, is washed out and could take days to repair.
The Moclips River flooded and people living along the river were evacuated. They took refuge at the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino in Ocean Shores.
There are no reports of injuries on the reservation.
Landslide danger continues for several days in W. Washington
SEATTLE (AP) — After the heavy rains that started the week, the National Weather Service more landslides are possible in western Washington, especially on coastal bluffs and steep hillsides.
The Weather Service says the danger will diminish over the next several days.
Forecasters expect no more rain in Washington until the chance returns at the end of the week.
Roundup: Heavy rain in Washington triggers flooding, evacuations
HOQUIAM (AP) — Torrential rain caused landslides and flooding Monday in parts of western Washington, forcing emergency crews to rescue an elderly woman and her small dog through a hole cut in her roof and washing away the foundations of other homes.
Floodwaters rose quickly as more than 5 inches of rain fell within 24 hours in some areas. High water closed parts of many roads. Widespread flooding was reported from Centralia to the Snoqualmie Valley and farther north.
No serious injuries were reported.
By Monday evening, the National Weather Service said the storm’s heavy rain was over, although some rivers could continue to rise and landslide danger could linger for several days.
Police in the coastal city of Aberdeen hitched a ride on a utility truck to get through flooded streets to reach a woman in her 80s whose house had been swept off its foundation by a mudslide. After firefighters cut a hole in the roof, the woman and her dog were pulled out to safety.
“Not a mark on her. A little uncomfortable from the cold and from being wet, but other than that she was in great condition,” police officer George Kelley told KXRO, adding that the woman refused to leave until her dog was rescued first. She was taken to a hospital to be checked.
In nearby Hoquiam, mudslides from a waterlogged hillside washed out the foundations of three homes, threatened others and forced the precautionary evacuation of about 60 nursing home residents, authorities said.
Police urged residents to leave their homes along a stretch of Queets Avenue at the base of Beacon Hill because of the danger that the whole bluff could give way, Police Chief Jeff Myers said.
“It sounded like thunder, but you could hear trees. It sounded like trees and dirt coming down the hill,” Cynthia Schmid told KOMO-TV. “But we got out alive, so that’s what matters. We had trouble sleeping (Sunday night). I think that was the grace of God letting us know something was going on.”
In Hoquiam, nearly 5.4 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, the weather service said. In Monroe, at the north end of the Snoqualmie Valley east of Seattle, the total was 6.9 inches. Nearly 5 inches fell in an area near Issaquah, about 15 miles east of Seattle. Even more rain fell in the Olympic Mountains and on the west side of the Cascade Mountains.
In the town of Snoqualmie, about 25 miles east of Seattle, city officials urged a precautionary evacuation of one neighborhood near the Snoqualmie River before the waters began to recede.
Water flooded several streets in downtown Centralia, along the Interstate 5 corridor. Flood waters were receding there by Monday evening.
At Taholah on the coast, the Quinault Indian Nation declared an emergency due to rainfall that caused numerous landslides and washouts, tribal President Fawn Sharp said. Some tribal members who live along the Moclips River were evacuated to the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino in Ocean Shores, she said.
Office building owner Gordon West arrived too late with a truck loaded with sandbags at his building on South I Street in Aberdeen. Water was already a foot deep in and around the building.
“If I ran the pump now I would just be pumping water in a circle,” he said Monday.
Grays Harbor County Sheriff Rick Scott said a dozen inmates of the juvenile detention facility on the banks of the Chehalis River in Aberdeen were moved temporarily to the county jail as a precaution.
The storm dropped snow last weekend in the mountains and higher elevations in eastern Washington. It turned to rain at lower elevations, including Spokane, on Monday as temperatures rose above freezing.
Some schools were closed or delayed Monday in Spokane because of road conditions after 5 to 10 inches of snow fell.
The city directed residents on Sunday to move their cars to the even side of residential streets to make room for snowplows that were clearing emergency routes and arterials.
