On Thursday, spring sported full white clouds, an electric blue sky and a dose of sunshine that was most welcome on Grays Harbor.
Torrential rains and floodwaters had pounded Western Washington for three days, forcing hundreds from their homes and leaving livestock stranded.
Thursday's break good weather combined with receding floodwaters came just in time, especially for people in the Wynoochee Valley where such flooding hadn't been seen in nearly a generation.
"This is the first day of spring, isn't it?" Warren Erickson asked with a chuckle. His property along the Wynoochee Valley Road just off State Route 12 near Monte was still flooded Thursday, but there's an old saying here: If you don't like the weather, stick around. "It was winter yesterday (and) spring today. It'll be summer tomorrow," Erickson said.
Even with warnings Tuesday night that trouble was on the way, the water rose so quickly it caught most people in the Wynoochee Valley off guard.
"When it was starting to come, it just came fast," said Kippy Wagner, Erickson's neighbor. "We didn't have much time to do anything. "
Both SR 12 and SR 107, which had been inundated in two places, were opened Thursday as were most roads.
The water washed through the Wynoochee River valley, clearing anything in its path.
Larry Merkle, the chief of hydrology in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' district office at Seattle, said the peak rush of water in the Wynoochee, at the mouth of Black Creek, was about 26,000 cubic feet per second. He said the Corps tries to control the flow, including the water from tributaries, at 18,000 cfs.
"We had the Wynoochee Dam essentially shut off but the tributaries" added to it, he said. He said even when the Corps was releasing as much as 4,500 cfs, it was only equal to about one percent of the water downstream.
"It was the largest event we've had since the dam was built," he said. The dam was built in 1972. He said he expected the dam to be back at flood control stage in the next day.
"I've seen some pretty bad stuff, but nothing like this, even before the dam," Erickson said. "The speed that it came up, that's what got you.
Debris, including a dog house, wood, logs, a gas can and empty bottles, floated or was caught in fences throughout the Wynoochee River valley.
The sunshine Thursday gave 9 residents a chance to return to a their homes.
"I'm sure people are enjoying the sun today," said Wagner. "At least we have a decent day to get out and clean up."
Wagner lives on the property that abuts SR 12 and the Wynoochee Valley Road and said she knew it was going to flood when Buford, a 7-year-old Jersey bull, came up to the barn. "It's like he knows," she said.
"The sheep were following him. "
She said by dawn, "it was completely flooded."
Erickson, who has lived on the property for 36 years, launched his 14-foot aluminum fishing boat into his pasture and cruised over fences that seemed nonexistent, safe under several feet of water. The Wynoochee River is about a mile away from his house.
"Even before they had the dam, the worst it ever was just a little over the fence posts and I never put a boat in it," Erickson said.
He said he was asleep and never received warning that operators at the Wynoochee Dam, 36 miles north, were releasing floods of water because heavy rains left little space in the dam.
He learned of the flood a little after 3 a.m. Wednesday, thanks to a phone call. " He then went out to watch the rising water, which, he said, "was coming up fast. "
It was fast enough to swamp his shop and maroon his cattle. The seven cows and five calves were left on a piece of high ground in the pasture. Thursday afternoon, they were still out there, about a half-mile away from the barn, separated by flood water that was still above the fence.
Other residents found the same problem, trying to get livestock out of the way of the torrent. South of Highway 12, ranchers put cattle in makeshift pens on Devonshire Road to keep their cattle safe.
Darlena Wilson, the deputy director of the county's Department of Emergency Management, said there had been reports of dead livestock, although so far none have been confirmed.
"We know there were a lot of threatened herds," she said this morning.
Rhonda Lee, who runs the Devonshire Pet Lodge with her husband, Dick, said 30 dogs and 12 cats had to be evacuated. Friends and neighbors helped move the animals, and they spent the night in the Pick-Rite Thriftway parking lot in Montesano. Lee took the animals up to a friend's house to give them a walk.
She said they returned Wednesday and found the house and kennel dry, but plenty of water around.
"We built (the kennel) up to the level the county said we should, and we're glad we did," she said.
But this flood seemed strange for Lee because of where it came from. The Devonshire Pet
Lodge is south of SR 12 near the confluence of the Wynoochee River and the Chehalis River.
For residents in the Montesano area, the flood came a different direction than they'd ever seen. Normally, it's the Chehalis that overflows.
"That was a little scary because we've never had water come from that direction across the freeway" from the Wynoochee, she said. "It usually just backs up on us" from the Chehalis.
Arnold Davis, who has 170 dairy cows south of Montesano on Arland Road, said in the 21 years he's lived there it was the 4 worst rain. "
He and his housekeeper, Norma Huddleston, were evacuated about 1 a.m. Wednesday and went to a hotel in Elma. He said they couldn't get back the next day because SR 12 was closed. Back on Thursday, he found the only flooding on the lawn of the house. His cows were fine.
Although about a half-mile down, Arland Road was still flooded late Thursday afternoon. The property is near the confluence of the Chehalis and the Wynoochee. "This one up here's controlled, " he said of the Wynoochee River. "That's the one that caused us problems. "
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