By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – By 5:30 this evening, the deputy director of Lewis County’s division of emergency management had moved beyond this morning’s earthquake.
“Earthquake?” Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Ross McDowell responded, then launched into how as the day progressed, his people began getting more and more calls about windstorm damage from last night.
And, the region can expect more wind tonight, McDowell said. Then tomorrow into the evening, the amount of rain is expected to be enough to possibly cause surface flooding in some places, and as much as two feet of snow may fall at elevations above 2000 feet, he said. Be prepared, was his message.
On this morning’s magnitude 4.2 earthquake near Mossyrock, he had heard very little.
“Nobody has called with any damage,” McDowell said. “None at all.”
The latest information indicates it hit at 7:51 a.m. three miles northeast of Mossyrock and seven miles west of Morton, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
It was recorded at a depth of 9.1 miles.
The information – now reviewed by a seismologist – comes from the University of Washington Department of Earth and Space Sciences.
It made the list of notable Pacific Northwest earthquakes since 1993, compiled by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. It is matched during 2010 only by a quake of similar magnitude on June 17 near Yakima.
A sensor at the base of the Mossyrock Dam detected motion, but not enough to trigger an alarm, according to a spokesperson for Tacoma Power which operates two dams on the Cowlitz River in East Lewis County.
They conducted inspections and did not find any damage, spokesperson Chris Gleason said today.
“We feel very confident there was no impact to the dam,” she said.
They checked the Mossyrock Dam – at the west end of Riffe Lake – and also the smaller Mayfield Dam farther west, she said.
What was felt around Lewis County ranged from a jolt to a swaying house.
They felt it good at the Chehalis Police Department.
“It shook the whole building here, the records tech actually ran out of the building,” police detective Sgt. Rick McNamara said.
At the Chehalis Fire Department, “the building just kinda went whooomp,” according to Firefighter Jay Birley.
“It knocked all my taxidermy work (including an elk head) off the wall,” said Lewis County Fire District 5 Firefighter Brad Bozarth, whose home is on Holcum Road west of Napavine.
On Rhoades Road, north of Winlock: “I was at home just about ready to get up for work and the walls were shaking,” Lewis County Fire District 15 Firefighter Kevin Anderson said. “My house was swaying and everything.”
Paramedic Brad Flexhaug was in the new quarters of Lewis County Medic One east of Winlock at state Route 505 and North Military Road.
“Here, it was just one big boom, basically is what it was,” Flexhaug said. “We didn’t know what it was.”
Closer to the apparent epicenter, some folks were less startled.
Dave DeBuhr lives off Justus Road east of Cinebar.
“It wasn’t much of anything here, it lasted maybe two seconds DeBuhr said. “Kind of a little, enough to make the dog’s ears perk.”
A few of the area residents called him – he’s chief of Lewis County Fire District 8 based in Salkum – and an individual who lives on Mayfield Lake “said it rumbled pretty good,” he said. “I kept looking at Mount St. Helens to see if it was smoking. It was not.”
Matt Hadaller was out hunting in the Winston Creek area.
“Did I feel it? You bet,” the chief of Lewis County Fire District 3 said. “I heard a roar, I thought the wind was blowing through the trees, but then the ground where I was moved.”
Morton City Clerk Sherry Claycamp was just arriving at City Hall.
“I was just getting ready to open the door in the back; and just a little tremor, the building shook a little,” Claycamp said. “Enough to know it was a quake, not enough to create panic.”
In Mossyrock, City Clerk Jeanette Miller said she didn’t even hear of anything falling off a shelf.
“In fact here, it was just a jolt, and then it was over,” Miller said.
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Look at information from Pacific Northwest Seismic Network here
Check the National Weather Service’s Forecast Office in Seattle here for a winter storm warning in East Lewis County and a special weather statement about coming cold weather for West Lewis County.
Note: a link for the weather forecast website can also always be found on the right-hand sidebar of Lewis County Sirens’ homepage
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter