By Tom Roeder, The Chronicle , Jan 15, 1998
Area rivers are expect to creep over flood stage today, but a break in heavy rains has brought relief for emergency management officials in Lewis and Thurston counties.
Wednesday, the National Weather Service upgraded a flood watch on the Chehalis, Skookumchuck and Black rivers to a warning, but flooding was expected to be relatively mild. The Chehalis River was expected to rise to flood stage in Centralia at 10 a.m. today and crest only 6 inches over its banks at 3 p.m.
At 8 a.m. today, the Chehalis was measured at 64.87 feet at Mellen Street, Centralia, Lewis County Emergency Management officials said. Flood stage for the river is 65 feet.
The Chehalis River is 2 feet over its banks in the Gate area of South Thurston County near Rochester closing some roads, but not leading to widespread property damage.
The Skookumchuck, Deschutes and Newaukum rivers remained well below flood stage this morning.
"We're lucky," said Mike Carl, emergency program manager for Thurston County. "If we had gotten all the rain that was forecast, this could have been devastating."
Carl said rains predicted today and Friday could serve to keep the river above flood stage, but major thoroughfares, including Highway 12, are not expected to be closed.
"Now we are calling for rain tonight running through Friday," he said. "We are waiting to see how that will affect the flooding."
The Twin Cities have had 3.52 inches of precipitation since the winter storm system took hold Sunday. In just two weeks, the area has received almost as much rain as is expected for the month.
The National Weather Service predicts rain to hang on in the area through Sunday, possibly causing rivers to rise higher.
Carl said sandbags were being handed out at fire halls, but few residents were using them.
Rochester Fire Chief Tim Weible said residents in his area are feeling reasonably lucky.
"We are seeing nothing that looks real catastrophic," he said. "There is going to be some minor damaging flooding, but there isn't anything major forecast."
Weible said if conditions worsen, he has 2,000 sandbags on hand.
In Lewis County Wednesday, the story was roads closed by standing water and one mudslide.
"It's been fairly mild," Road Maintenance Superintendent Bill Forth said. "We had a mudslide near Napavine caused by saturated ground and rainfall, but it was an isolated incident."
Forth said several Lewis County roads remain closed by standing water. As rivers rise, drivers need to use good judgment.
"People need to driving carefully with the thought in mind that there is some low-lying flooding, especially in ditches that might extend over the roadway," he said.
Forth said crews finished plowing roads in East Lewis County late Wednesday. The Packwood area was hit with as much as 2 feet of snow in the wake of a Sunday storm, he said.
"We feel lucky that the whole storm came in on a weekend and only stayed for three days," Forth said.
Korte Brueckmann, a Tacoma City Light spokesman, said extra capacity at Mossyrock Dam could spare the Cowlitz River basin from flood damage. But he said the utility is having to increase the amount of water it sends down the river.
"We are worried about increased flows from the Tilton River into Mayfield Lake at this point," he said. "We are looking at having to increase flows to 15,000 cubic feet per minute on Friday."
Drastically increased flows sent down the Cowlitz by the utility in November 1995 caused major damage in the Toledo area and strained dikes and revetments.
"We aren't expecting any damage from this increase," Brueckmann said.