Washington state flood pics

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeremykingfamily/Flood2007

Gadzooks! I hadn’t heard much about this, but my niece lives in Raymond, WA, and her husband works for a utility company there. This is what he wrote:

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Most people haven’t even heard about the storm (basically a Hurricane: 130+ mph winds) that hit the Oregon and Washington Coasts on December 2 nd. We still haven’t got everybody’s power back on and H and I went without power for over 72 hours. The pictures of Centralia and Chehalis are towns on Interstate 5 just 50 miles East of us off the Coast. You will see the Exit Sign for Raymond and Pe Ell and we live in Raymond. It was a CRAZY storm and lasted over 30 hours.

Most big storms (and we get a few a year) only last about 6 to 10 hours and then we get to work. Last I heard, 5 deaths in WA are attributed to the storm and 10 in Oregon. The National Guard had to come in. All communications were down at several times. Emergency Op. Center had to employ the local HAM radio guys to talk to the outside world.

We were stranded, having to cut our way through downed trees to get anywhere. Hwy 101 (the Coast Hwy that runs Mexico to Canada) was flooded and blocked by trees. Only 1 gas station in the whole county had power and it was 45 minutes from our office. We and the DOT had to ration fuel because we would have run out.

One thought on “Washington state flood pics

  1. Just got back from seeing this in person. Highway 6 was open (day light hours only) for the first time since Dec.2nd when we pulled in to town. There are really no words to describe this. So many HUGE trees were down for miles & miles & miles. I’m talking thousands & thousands of trees. It was like giant boxes of tooth picks on the hills had been spilled.
    The homes that had had 7 or 8 feet of water & mud run through them was so sad to see!Piles of rubble outside, that used to be home furnishings & things. Some homes salvageable, others ruined.
    Certainly opened my eyes & made me count my lucky stars.
    Happy New Year….Packy

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