Washington State Devastated By Floods

Snowmelt And Rain Force 30,000 Evacuations, Highway Closures; State Losing $4 Million A Day

(CBS/AP)  Floods, mudslides and avalanches in the Pacific Northwest kept tens of thousands of people from their homes Thursday, brought freight trains to a standstill and stranded hundreds of trucks along the major highways that link Seattle's busy ports with markets around the country.

The flooding - some of the worst on record in Washington state - was touched off by a combination of heavy rain of 6 inches or more and a warm spell in the mid-40s that rapidly melted the snow in the Cascade Range.

A 20-mile stretch of Interstate 5, the state's major north-south freeway, was shut down between Olympia and the Oregon line, with one section area under 3 feet of water. Avalanches closed I-90, which cuts east from Seattle through the Cascades, along with the two other routes through the mountains. Amtrak service and most freight trains were stopped as well.

Hundreds of truckers pulled their rigs off onto the shoulders or packed truck stops as the bad weather bottled up nearly all freight in and around Seattle, choking the state's economy - state officials put the economic damage at more than $4 million a day, according CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.

"You can't go north, you can't go east, you can't go south. What are my options?" said Jon Amerman, a trucker from White Hall, Mont., who had planned to head east to Yakima to pick up apples after delivering a load of goods to Seattle. Instead, he pulled over to the side, and figured his company was losing more than $1,000 a day every day that he was idle.

More than 30,000 people in western Washington were urged to evacuate their homes on Wednesday in low-lying areas from Bellingham near the Canadian border to the Kelso area near the Oregon line as rivers spilled over their banks and flooded some neighborhoods.

Flood warnings remain in effect for about two dozen rivers and a state of emergency has been declared in 20 counties, Blackstone reports.

The stricken areas included such far-flung Seattle bedroom communities as Fife, Orting and Snohomish, but Seattle itself saw little flooding.

Rescuers used boats to evacuate scores of people from nursing homes. Fire trucks rolled through the streets, using loudspeakers to warn people to leave.

No serious injuries were reported.

"I think we're seeing an all-timer, or as bad as anyone has seen," said Rob Harper, a spokesman for the state Division of Emergency Management. "We just haven't seen this extent of flooding."

Many rivers were still rising Thursday, though others began dropping as the heavy rain subsided and snowmelt lessened with falling temperatures.

State officials said the danger of avalanches would keep I-90 closed at Snoqualmie Pass at least until Friday, and I-5 would probably still be flooded over the weekend.

Crews struggled to reopen highways, especially those leading to communities cut off by the flooding and avalanches.

In Orting, a town near Mount Rainier, Jamie Hicks used five pumps to try to clear the 2½ feet of water from his house, about 50 yards from the swollen Puyallup River.

"We're veterans at this," Hicks said as his son rowed a boat in front of the house. "You just pump it out."

In Snohomish, about 30 miles north of Seattle, a crowd watched as Robert Bishop and his roommates were rescued by boat from their two-story duplex. The home close to the Pilchuk River was nearly half underwater.

"I thought it was fine, but it went higher than I thought," said Bishop, 48, who waited out previous floods. "It was very scary."

Because of the closed highways, a truck traveling north from Portland, Ore., to Seattle - normally a journey of about 175 miles - would need to take a 440-mile detour. Ten thousand trucks travel I-5 each day, and an additional 7,000 move freight across the Cascades.

"We have totally stopped commerce in this state," said state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond, who estimated the economic effect of just the I-5 shutdown at $4 million a day. A major storm 13 months ago closed the same stretch for four days.

A spokesman for the Port of Seattle said it was too early to gauge the cost of the storm. In 2008, the port took in 1.7 million 20-foot containers from China, Japan, South Korea and elsewhere. Most of that freight leaves the port by rail.

No freight or passenger trains were moving between Seattle and Portland, but some trains were still making it across one of the Cascade Range passes. About 60 trains travel daily between Portland and Seattle, carrying freight and passengers, said Gus Melonas, a spokesman for Burlington Northern.

[Sharkdog2000]

I don''t care where you live or who you are - if a natural disaster hits & your home was damaged or destroyed, you lost your business or your job, loved ones were injured or died...I would NEVER be as mean-spirited and cruel as some of these comments. Did we learn nothing from Katrina? Disasters happen everywhere to everyone...they don''t care about your color, or your citizenship, or how much money you have in the bank - and we shouldn''t either. Human beings, hello?!?! We should be looking out for each other, not calling each other names based on political leanings - how stupid! You should be ashamed of yourselves.

And for the record - we rarely have as much snow as we did last month, we don''t even come close to holding any record for amount of rainfall, we have a hugely diversified LEGAL population and yes - most of us actually do value our Eastern half (even when the politicians don''t) and know full well that Spokane has suffered with this weather, too.

[barbaram99]

There is black folk every where.

[dxgmk]

whoops I said ***! instead of cheney!

[dxgmk]

silly people! yes washington may not have a huge number of blacks, but probably does have the highest percentage of illegal aliens, that''s what going to get us the relief as long as george and *** and condi are running things

[c0nsc10u5_1]

Betcha FEMA will have no problem handling this emergency...seeing as how its mostly white people living in Washington State.

[pfanerk]

Sure, go ahead and live near the coast where it rains a lot, snows a lot and then floods and expect the federal government to bail out your butt because you made bad decisions. Losers.

That chunk of I-5 seems to get flooded out reqularly.
In light of the mind boggling amount of cargo, frieght, and commerce that travels I-5 each day, seems to me that elevating that section (or some other solution) would be a pretty good match for Obama''s "infrastructure rebuild" program.
You folks up there wanna write your representatives??

[nobambam]

All the water is coming from the melting glaciers!
Call Algore to help us!!

[barbaram99]

I am in Seattle and THIS is one crazy wintah.That is Maine for winter. Pat,use to live in yer city. This will jack things up. We have the port of Seattle.
Deb ,nothing.

[pat1967-2009]

"We have totally stopped commerce in this state," said state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond

Once again someone from the west side of the mountains totally discounts the existence of the east side. Spokane is the second largest city in the state and the largest city between Seattle and Chicago along I-90. We''ve had record snow so far this year (almost 7 feet) but we are still going strong.

[debinok1]

Ok, the government has committed soldiers to the global navy to fight the somalian pirates. What are they going to do to help these people?