By John Henderer, The Chronicle , 1/14/1998
CENTRALIA - Snowfall and warmer temperatures may bring Chehalis River flooding, but a hydrologist said it should not be as bad as holiday flooding from previous winters.
"Right now it is too early to say for sure, but there's certainly the potential for flooding, particularly on Southwest Washington rivers later this week," said Doug McDonnal of the National Weather Service.
Warmer temperatures, snowmelt and rainstorms today and Thursday may cause the Chehalis River to reach flood stage, McDonnal said.
Two weather systems, packing possibly heavy rainfall, could cause the river to rise quickly.
One factor, however, weighs in favor of the Twin Cities area, McDonnal said: The river heads into the storm threat at a low ebb.
If predicted rainfall materializes, the Weather Service will issue a flood watch, meaning it expects the river to crest above flood stage within 12 to 30 hours.
McDonnal said the Chehalis River could crest about 2 to 3 feet above flood stage. This is similar to the floods that arrived in late December 1996 and early January 1997, but those storms lifted the Chehalis 5 feet above flood stage, he said.
He predicted a series of weather systems will move through Southwest Washington beginning today. The freezing levels should be at about 6,000 feet, allowing snowmelt in the Twin Cities area.
"I certainly think there's the potential for flooding down there, but I don't think it's going to happen before Thursday or Friday," McDonnal said.
Lewis County emergency management officials are keeping a sharp eye on river gauges and broadcasts from the National Weather Service.
The prediction of a 12-hour respite between rainfall systems Wednesday and Thursday brought a sigh of relief from Jeanne Massingham, manager of the county's Division of Emergency Management.
"Normally a rain interlude of that sort would help us reducing the flood threat on the Chehalis," she said.
Snowfall caused little problems with the Lewis County Public Utility District.
Manager Gary Kalich said the PUD had a few scattered failures, but tree trimming efforts seemed to have paid dividends in avoiding downed power lines.
"All in all we got by pretty lightly," he said Monday. "We've spent a lot of customers' money keeping the tree trimming up. Twenty years ago, I'm afraid, it wouldn't have been the same."
Failures occurred on Spirit Lake Highway east of Toledo. A scheduled service stoppage went ahead Sunday as part of an effort relocating a power substation from near Sunbird Shopping Center to Coal Creek Road, about half a mile away in north Chehalis.
County road crews plowed and sanded all 1,065 miles of county roads, said Bill Forth, roads superintendent.
The county had about 20 vehicles equipped with plows, sanders and grading gear. They were working out of five maintenance shops and a central shop for equipment repair.
Continued heavy snowfall in East Lewis County prompted the county to divert road-clearing equipment eastward. Forth said the Packwood area received 18 to 20 inches more snowfall over Monday night.
"They've got quite a bit of snow up there," Forth said. "All available resources up there are working extended hours. As we can free up equipment on the west end, we're sending it east."