By the Daily World staff, The Aberdeen Daily World , 12/30/1998
While a flood warning remained in effect for the Chehalis River Valley today, emergency officials expected only minor problems. Several slides in the Harbor area were quickly cleared.
There was another inch of rain overnight on the Harbor, but the turbidity level in the water supply to Aberdeen and Cosmopolis is dropping. Officials still want residents to conserve water, but hoped to restore the supply to the main reservoir tonight. Rainfall for the year to date is 97.17 inches.
Minor flooding covered low-lying roads and fields in East County and throughout Western Washington today, but officials were hopeful that the worst was already over.
Harbor-area roads closed due to flooding included, Brady Loop, Keyes Road, Newman Creek, Wenzel Slough, Robertson, Howanut, Foster, Anderson, Tulips and Elma Gate E.
"Even up until Monday morning, it looked like a potential for widespread flooding,'' said Doug McDonnal of the National Weather Service in Seattle. "But (Monday) we got less rainfall than had been expected. And with the rain (Tuesday), we've been getting 12 hours of heavy rains instead of 24 hours.''
Still, winds of 25-35 mph, with gusts to 55 along the coast, and more rain is expected tonight and Thursday, McDonnal said.
However, dry weather is expected through the weekend.
Fields of hybrid poplars outside of Montesano were under water this morning, and storm drains at the Highway 8 interchange at Monte were spouting water from the low-lying fields.
A mudslide on the South Shore Road at Lake Quinault blocked access to some homes Tuesday afternoon. County work crews had the road open again this morning and electric service wasn't affected.
The slide happened between McMillan Falls and Inner Creek, the same stretch of road that was blocked for several days by a larger slide Nov. 13.
"It's all open, all cleaned up," said the county's public works operations supervisor, Bruce Clevenger.
"It was mostly logs and rocks, but this one was only three to four feet deep," Clevenger reported from Montesano this morning.
The Nov. 13 slide blocked the road in two spots and was more than seven feet deep.
The Wishkah Road northeast of Aberdeen, had two small slides - one near the Malinowski Dam, the other at Tikka corner. Both were cleared early this morning.
The National Weather Service had flood warnings posted for five rivers, including the Chehalis, meaning flooding is occurring or is imminent. The warnings were for the Snohomish, Cowlitz, Skokomish and Snoqualmie. The weather service ended flood warnings for the Satsop this morning.
No injuries or major property damage have been reported as a result of the flooding or slides.
Rain ended over Western Washington overnight, including the Cascade Mountains, the weather service said. The upper reaches of rivers flowing out of the Cascades were receding or in the process of cresting this morning, the weather service said. It warned that the Snohomish River was expected to cause major flooding today downstream from Duvall in King County, including farms, residential areas and roads.
Lighter rainfall caused forecasters to reduce flood predictions on rivers across the state on Tuesday.
In northeast King County, the Snoqualmie and Tolt flooded low-lying roads and fields from the city of Snoqualmie downstream to Duvall in the Snoqualmie Valley.
With the rain came strong winds. Near Snoqualmie Pass, a gust of wind blew a tractor-trailer rig onto its side Tuesday, cracking it open and spilling U.S. mail packages onto the road. The driver was not injured.
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