By Brian Mittge, 12/13/2002, The Chronicle
Fish were thick and the rains were heavy below Barrier Dam on the Cowlitz River in Salkum Thursday afternoon. River levels throughout Lewis County are rising with more rain predicted for the weekend, but dam operators say a drought has left plenty of room in Riffe Lake to hold any potential floodwaters on the Cowlitz River.
What a difference a week can make.
Local rivers are rising toward their banks and the bare slopes of White Pass are covered with snow as heavy precipitation this week washed away remnants of a six-month drought in Western Washington.
Rains and wind are expected to intensify this weekend as storms from a Pacific typhoon work their way inland Saturday night and hit hard Sunday morning.
The rains are welcome to those who remember a dry winter and resulting power crisis two years ago.
"We're glad to see some rain, for sure. Hopefully it's not too much," said Dean McLeod, who manages Tacoma Power's two dams on the Cowlitz River. Riffe Lake is 20 feet below its normal "flood curve" water level, so there's plenty of room for more rain, he said.
Local officials aren't muttering the dreaded word "flooding" just yet, but say it now makes sense to prepare for the possibility of water over the banks.
"There's going to be another shot of rain this weekend, that'll send them up pretty high," said Brent Bower, hydrologic program manager with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
Local rivers will come close to topping their banks, he said, but estimated that's still a few feet from even a common phase 1 flood. If heavy rains continue, worse flooding is always a possibility, officials said.
Lt. Steve Mansfield of the Lewis County Emergency Management Office said Chehalis and Centralia came fairly close to a major flood early this year.
"We got real close, we just didn't have the weather to push us over the edge. It didn't come all at once," he said.
In case we're headed for another 1996 this year, he advises those whose properties might flood to make sure that flood insurance is paid, since it takes 30 days to take effect.
His office has flood maps and emergency information, which suggests that those in low-lying areas should have an emergency kit with medicine, flashlights, a battery-operated radio and enough water, food and pet supplies to last for three days.
The last six months have been unusually dry. Even since Oct. 1, which is the official start of the new water year, rainfall has only been 40 percent of average.
Although this week's rain is pooling up in soggy lawns and filling rivers, dig down a few feet and you'll find the ground is still fairly dry, said Bower. The upper ground surface gets saturated but water can only filter through the ground so fast, he said.
"What you want is light rain over long periods," he said.
The heavy rain has another bonus: White Pass has 20 inches of snow at the base, and this weekend operators hope to open most of its runs for the first time this year, according to a representative at the East Lewis County ski resort.
Twin Cities-area rivers, which were just a trickle over the weekend, now flow with quick-moving chocolate-colored water. It might look like it's getting closer to a flood, but Mansfield said the rivers are where they should be this time of year.
The Chehalis River at the Mellen Street Bridge is still 12 feet below the earliest flood stage, he said.
"I guess it's been dry for so long and the rivers have been so extremely low that we don't realize these levels are normal," he said.
Brian Mittge covers politics, the environment and Lewis County government for The Chronicle. He may be reached by telephoning 807-8237.
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