Flood Worries: Rivers watched as warmer weather brings rapid defrost.

By Tom Roeder, The Chronicle , January 13, 1998

CHEHALIS - Officials in the Lewis County area are preparing for rivers to jump their banks Wednesday.

The flooding, now predicted by the National Weather Service to hit the hardest in Southwest Washington, is on its way because of a large snow buildup, followed by a quick thaw because of increased temperatures and rain.

Predictions vary on just how bad flooding could be, but the concurrence seems to be that flooding expected this week will not hit levels the area experienced in February 1996.

"I don't think it's going to be that bad," Lewis County Sheriff John McCroskey said. "The good thing is that the water content of this snow is very low, so when it melts the flooding shouldn't be that bad."

McCroskey said his office and others throughout the county have staff carefully monitoring the river levels.

"I'm worried about the Chehalis and Newaukum rivers," Red Cross board chairwoman Mary Myhre-Pancake said Monday. "We are ready for it this time."

Myhre-Pancake said the relief organization has restocked supplies lost in a July fire. Some of those supplies are stored in East Lewis County now, she said.

Tacoma City Light officials said the Cowlitz River can be held back with dams at Mossyrock and Mayfield.

Spokesman Korte Brueckmann said the two dams have a combined 39 feet of available water capacity.

"We should be able to keep discharges into the Cowlitz at normal levels," Brueckmann said. "We should have the capacity to absorb the brunt of this storm."

That announcement is good news for Toledo-area residents. They were hit by severe flooding in November 1995 when Tacoma City Light had to massively increase discharges on the Cowlitz.