The flooding here in western WA has closed most of the routes out of my small town. The major interstate, I-5, is down to one lane north. It was shut down for four days in 1996, and the river is expected to go five feet higher than it did then, by 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. They are opening the shelters for the folks living in the flood plain to the south.

We've had 6" of rain in the last 36 hours, and the ground is saturated. More rain expected. The weather guessers have backed down on the speed of the wind they expect, so I hope they're right. With ground this wet, the trees go over easily, taking the power lines with them.

I'm on high ground, so no expected problems here.

Always wanted to live on an island....

Sue

Wow, sounds as if this winter is gonna be wetter than last year, and it was plenty wet enough for us. We are going to be back at "our" old Army fort next summer thru probably the end of Nov, so we hope that Mother Nature gets this wet stuff out of her system by then. Good luck, and keep your bumbershoot handy...

Susan,
Sounds like a typical day in Louisiana!
Glad to hear you are on high ground.

Do you have a small boat or canoe ?
They come in handy when the roads are out.

Good luck!

I have access to a canoe, but I don't see any need to go anywhere at this point. I hope it stays that way!

Sue

Good Luck, 1st of all! You sound like you'd do well here in south Lousy-anna, if you don't mind the morphing process.

It's painless and people really don't mind the webbing that grows between the fingers and toes. It is embarrassing at times when one is speaking and a "duck quack" slips out, with a French accent!

I saw the footage of your weather this morning on the news. Wow! It's good you've got high ground! I'll bet the water barrels are full

Most of the PNW on the west side of the Cascades perks pretty well. It is mostly glacial till, but occasionally you get open/shallow basaltic flows and then there's the river silt areas that turn into a big mudpile when it gets like this. I remember most of our neighbors houses flooding out back home in a suburb of Tacoma 25 years ago, but our house was a good 5 feet above grade, so all we did was grumble because we had to do chores or go play out in the wet stuff all day.

Package it up, and sell it to people in the great State of Georgia! They are a might low on water there! You could make a fortune!

The Coast Guard (etc) are airlifting people out of the nearby Independence Valley and depositiing them in the grocery store parking lot a few blocks from me.

We literally became an island about 4 p.m. yesterday, simply because no one can get out of the area except by boat or air. A friend of my sister's called to ask if she could stay with her because she couldn't get home, but she never got there. After three hours parked on I-5, she said her cell phone was dying and she didn't have a charger in her car.

The levee near the Chehalis River has either broken or the water just went over the top. Authorities are estimating that the water on top of the pavement of I-5 is twelve feet deep.

A coworker called and said water was knee-deep all around her brother's house. She said they didn't know it flooded there. (duh! You're in the flood plain, dummies!)

The hospital is an island, and they're running out of supplies. I assume that the National Guard or something could get stuff to them if they asked. The only way in or out is by air. Fortunately, the flood hit on my sister's days off, for which she is extremely grateful.

The coastal town of Aberdeen is totally cut off, partly flooded, and 90% of the homes are without power.

We are high and relatively dry here. Power on, water running. The temp is 56F, so at least cold isn't much of an issue if you're dry.

Sue

p.s. It doesn't help to have radios if you can't get reception. I can't get the local stations in the house or truck (which has a good radio).

The last time it flooded, KITI dedicated itself to 24-hr coverage and information, where the shelter buses were picking up, what roads were clear to get to the shelters, how high the water was, warnings of rising water, etc. I don't know if they're doing it this year.

Actual info that I can get is verbal. The info online is fairly skimpy, with most of what is available being mostly road closures.

Sue

Sue