By Mary Ann Barton
senior staff writer
in photo at right: County road crews
set up this "water over roadway" sign on Issaquah-Fall City Road
in King County, Wash., after winter storms ravaged the area. Photo courtesy
of King County, Wash.
Freezing snow, followed by sleet, rain and high winds, were a recipe for disaster in Washington and Oregon late last month. The leftovers-flooding, power outages, mudslides, collapsed roofs, and damaged roads-were even worse.
"The two worst hit were Snohomish County and King County," said Gary Lowe, executive director of the Washington State Association of Counties. Pierce and Kitsap counties, also in the Puget Sound region, also took the brunt of the bad weather.
At press time, 24 of the state's 39 counties were declared disaster areas by the state's governor. Damages were being assessed to determine whether counties would qualify for federal aid.
King and Pierce counties had set up hotlines which residents could call to report damage in order to qualify for federal assistance. Statewide damage could top last winter's record of $320 million, according to the News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash.
Counties around Puget Sound were blanketed by at least six inches of snow, unusual at sea level, followed by sleet and rain. (Whatcom County in the northernmost area, received about two feet of snow.)
"The flooding was not so much the issue, it was the snow-it froze our storm drains," said Commissioner Jane Hague, who chairs the King County Board of Commissioners.
Dick Ferguson, spokesman for Pierce County, said the snow and ice "were too much for the trees-power [outage] was the problem."
King County is historically ill-prepared to remove snow, Hague said. Once the rain came on top of the snow, it was like a "sheet of steel and everything floated on top of it."
Wetlands and slopes shifted, creating severe road damage, she said.
Coordination between county departments-transportation, natural resources and public safety-was essential, she noted. The county also created a special Office of Emergency Procedures that answered "several thousand" calls from residents.
The area's 911 emergency phone system was stretched to the limit.
Hague, who is recovering from a bout of pneumonia, rode out the storm at home. "I just put a log on the fire and enjoyed the winter wonderland," she said.
Ferguson was starting his first day of vacation , at home, on Dec. 26 when the storm hit. His power went out, but he had just enough hot water to take a shower and report to his office. Approximately 150,000 homes in Pierce County (which has a population of 660,000) were without power for a week.
Ferguson said the storm damage to Pierce County was not as bad as the huge floods that hit the county last February, when the county alone sustained about $40 million in damage.
Ferguson said two weeks after the worst of the storms that the county will be picking up debris for two months.
King County's Solid Waste Division alsowaived its disposal fees for residential debris from the storm and flooding.
Pierce County was accepting storm debris at 11 sites throughout the county during two eight-day "windows." Residents could either leave it curbside to be picked up, or drop it off, both at no charge.
Snohomish County Engineer Jack Bilsborough said there was about $3.9 million worth of damage done to county property alone, mostly roads. The county started out with about 35 roads that needed repair but was down to about 20 last week. He said the estimated damage to homes and businesses (lots of collapsed roofs) in the area was at about $75 million.
"Another big story here is the number of people who sat in the cold and dark without power in Thurston County since Dec. 26," Lowe said.
Puget Sound Power & Light, the largest utility in the area, had reported about 250,000 homes without power during the beginning of the storms, which began Dec. 26.
Thurston County, population 185,000, saw about 55,000 of its residents without power for up to nine days, according to Bette Shultz, emergency management coordinator for the county.
Since many of its citizens were without power, the county spent much of its time coordinating efforts with the American Red Cross to open shelters for families, many of whom stayed for four to five nights, Shultz noted.
The county closed down its courthouse for a day, Dec. 27, because of the sporadic electric service. Its 911 center and emergency operatives center operated on generators.
A road leading to the Lucky Eagle Casino was blocked because the Chehlais River overflowed its banks. "They probably lost a lot of revenue," Shultz said. "Especially on New Year's Eve."
"Flood Central has reopened," Pat Ehrlich said with a laugh.
Ehrlich, county road program manager for the Association of Oregon Counties, was fielding calls last week from counties across the state after a spate of rain, ice, and snowstorms that recently hit the area.
It's part of Ehrlich's job to collect information on road damage from the counties, to help them apply for federal highway funds. Ehrlich said the type of damage reported is important-for instance, counties are not eligible for federal or state funds if a mudslide occurs, but assistance is available for such problems as "wash-outs," when a creek overruns its banks and washes away part of a road.
FEMA representatives will soon be in the area, assessing damage, filling out what is known in emergency management circles as "DSRs" or damage survey reports, she said.
Eight of Oregon's 36 counties were declared disaster areas by its governor. They are: Jackson, Josephine, Lake, Klamath in southern Oregon, and Baker, Clackamas, Wallowa and Columbia in the north and northeast. At press time, the counties had not been declared federal disaster areas.
It was mainly the northern counties in Oregon that suffered from severe flooding after a storm last February.
The bad weather this time began Dec. 30 and 31st, when heavy rains fell, followed by a warm wind, part of a system dubbed the Pineapple Express (from Hawaii) that melted snow too fast, causing severe flooding.
Jackson County's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) began coordinating efforts with local fire and police and the American Red Cross to evacuate and shelter residents in threatened areas. The EOC also worked with the National Guard to provide some areas with water, after sewer and water was knocked out.
"Someone said one of the towns looked like a rock festival from the '60s, with all the Port-a-Potties," commented Sue Slack, assistant county administrator for Jackson County.
Slack said she lost water and sewer at her home, but "that was nothing. There were people who lost their homes."
The county EOC also fielded thousands of phone calls (about 300 an hour) from area residents, who had questions about road closures, where to get sandbags, etc., Slack said. The EOC hotlines were open 24 hours a day for more than two days during the worst parts of the storm.
The EOC also worked to get word about road closures, etc. out to the news media. The area is the smallest in the nation (population 160,000) with affiliates of all four national broadcast TV networks, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, she noted.
"They're pretty competitive," Slack said. "We would call them and they would run it."
Last week, Slack was working with representatives from FEMA, assessing damage to the county. The county estimated it had sustained $50.4 million in damage to housing, businesses, agriculture and local government infrastructure.
"We're just down to paperwork now," she said.