The 2001 Honda Civic is parked in between the two houses n south Chehalis. / Courtesy photo
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The flood warning for the Chehalis River around the Twin Cities is for tonight and tomorrow, but one household woke up bright and early this morning to find their cars nearly submerged in their driveway.
It was raining hard Sunday at bedtime, and had rained all day, Chehalis resident Gretchen Reyna said.
“I got up at 6 (o’clock), looked out the window and thought, ‘oh my gosh’,” Reyna said. “Yeah, it was up to the windows.”
The Pontiac she and her husband share, her 16-year-old son’s Honda Civic and her older son’s Honda were all practically under water, she said. A neighbor found their car in a similar situation, she said.
The family lives on Southwest Pacific Avenue, in the area behind Jack-in-the-Box and the Best Western Motel, off the 13th Street freeway exit. Parking lots of some of the businesses along Interstate Avenue were flooded as well, she said.
Fortunately, none of the water came into their home, a rental they just moved into a week ago. The driveway is lower than the house, she said.
“We talked to our landlady today, she said she’s been talking to the city for a long time about the storm drains,” Reyna said. “She’s livid. She’s already filed a claim.”
She was told it might have been a plugged culvert, or something similar, Reyna said.
The 39-year-old social worker who works in Olympia, said their landlady rented them a car today, so they could get to work. The family had only liability insurance on their vehicles, so it won’t be as simple as replacing them, she said.
“Obviously they’re ruined,” she said. “We’re going to try to dry them out, to see if we can salvage anything.”
The National Weather Service yesterday issued a flood watch for rivers in Western Washington, including in Lewis County, such as the upper Cowlitz River, the Newaukum River and the Chehalis River.
The alert was upgraded to a warning today. Numerous roads and streets were closed today with water over them, especially downtown Centralia.
This evening, at the Chehalis Fire Department, the crew was waiting, prepared for whatever the rising river might bring. But they’d had no weather related calls.
Some streets in Chehalis were closed, the usual ones such as Southwest Chehalis Avenue, and Kresky Avenue, Firefighter Derrick Paul said.
Firefighter Steve Emrich, whose own home is along the Chehalis River, said so far, their shift and the river have been “pretty benign.”
The weather service’s statement issued at 9:30 p.m. tonight, predicts the Chehalis River at Centralia will rise above flood stage about 9 o’clock in the morning. Emrich knows it will hit Chehalis some time before that.
The river is expected to crest near 65 feet about an hour later and then fall back below flood stage in the late morning. The peak has been revised downward by two feet since this morning’s forecast.
The results should be shallow flooding of farm lands and some roads; the roads include Airport Road, Florida Avenue in Chehalis and Military Road in Centralia, according to the weather service.
The upper Cowlitz River at Randle and Packwood appears to have crested well below flood stage.
The Newaukum River through Onalaska, Napavine and Chehalis crested this afternoon at just over 13 feet, about a half foot below its 1996 record. At least two homes on Rosebrook Road got water inside.
The Skookumchuck River at Bucoda is cresting in the “moderate” flood stage; and is forecast to crest in Centralia around 4 a.m. just below what’s considered a minor flood stage.
Monitor the changing conditions for yourself, using links always available on the right-hand sidebar of this news site under “Other useful web links. Direct from the National Weather Service.
• “Weather alerts, forecasts“: Click on the map to find your current and forecast temperature and other weather information, as well as alerts for hazardous weather conditions.
• “River levels“: Graphs show you what level your river has been at, where it’s at right now and where it is projected to be.
• Also, quickly and easily get information directly from others in the community by viewing or joining Lewis County Sirens on Facebook.
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For more, read “Water, water everywhere, but little damage in Centralia so far” from Monday January 5, 2015, here
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The Reyna’s Pontiac and Honda sit in their driveway.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
maybe its the cities fault or did the landlady fail disclose to the new renters the possibility that the driveway could flood??? maybe there are more at fault to this issue?