Historic Flooding in Washington

[Seattle]

Here in Washington and ORego and I presume B.C. we are dealing with epic and historic flooding..... man heavily poulated areas and places that have not flooded since settled are and are forecasted to keep on flooding through the weekend.... were talking about 3-6 feet of water in places that have never, ever seen flooding. We had something similar last year, but on in one part of the state... which was also bad, but not as long.

I-5 the main road between Seattle and Portland has been closed from Olympia (the state capital) down for another 20 miles, due to washed roads and flooding... Rivers in that area have crested at around 70 feet (the big ones) and all rivers there are in record or near record flooding. All the passes through the mountains to EAstern Washington have been closed, I-90, Stevens Pass, White Pass, Mt. Baker Ps, and Columbia Gorge highway. Luckily, Stevens pass has been reopened 1 way each.... but they may have to close again tomorrow for avalanche control.

Additionally, all side streets and rail service between seattle and portland has been cancelled.... meaning a large boost in flights on UA and Horizon between SEattle and Portland. Like an extra 15 dailys for tomorrow and the weekend.


Essentially, Seattle is cut of by land is only accesable by plane... and I guess water but there are no out of state ferries other than to B.C..... Seattle is lucky, we dont have any major rivers near us, but to our south, a big city called Tacoma has 6 feet of water in many places. A major farming and populated are in Snohomish and Skagit counties, to the North had flooding... in places which have never had it before. Luckily... no one has died, but there ahve been many close calls and already, 4-5 million dollars in direct damage has been done, not including final totals and public damage to people livelyhoods. First 12-30 inches of snow... then 4-15 inches of rain ontop of that (the monutains got like 15-20 inches of rain) that spells disaster. Just updating the situation to anyone who's heard.

[Obmit]

Now rewrite the whole thing in the metric system lol

[Dooskie III]

Grew up in Bremerton, which is right across the Puget Sound from Seattle. Lived there for 40 years. Was back for Christmas, right after some heavy snow. Tried to visit my brother in Richland, which is in Eastern Washington by the nuke plant. Took seven hours to make a 4 hour drive due to the poor road conditions. Quite a winter! So while they are getting slammed with floods, we're looking forward to some rather chilly weather this week. Lows will get to -25 degrees farenheit (not sure what that is in metric terms, but it's damn cold!). High's will not get to zero (again farenheit). Hope I've paid the heating bill! 

[Japanair]

When you walk on the sidewalk, every few steps you sink a foot down. Its not melting very much because of the layer of ice on top of the snow. at least the big streets are safe for driving...

[Seattle]

When you walk on the sidewalk, every few steps you sink a foot down. Its not melting very much because of the layer of ice on top of the snow. at least the big streets are safe for driving...

How come your snow hasnt melted....? It should have all melted with the sotrm on Thursday/Wednesday that had highs around 10C in many places

Well people are estmiating over 125 million dollars in damages, not including lost business, I-5 is still closed as are other passes 

Also, Arctic air in Alaska is so cold that its gotten down  to -60F (-50C?) in places.... this is the air thats forecasted to make the end of January and most of February extremely cold 

Dooskie.... where do you live now?

[Japanair]

How come your snow hasnt melted....? It should have all melted with the sotrm on Thursday/Wednesday that had highs around 10C in many places

Because it always freezes overnight..,

Well people are estmiating over 125 million dollars in damages, not including lost business, I-5 is still closed as are other passes 

We have an estimated 40mil in 2008... don't know anything about the flooding in 2009 though.

[Dooskie III]

I am now living about an hour north of Green Bay. If you look up Hell on the map, that is where I am. Came out here in 2000. People are fine, just not someplace I really enjoy. It's boring. It's flat. Nothing beats the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. I'm hoping to migrate back that direction soon. 

[Seattle]

How come your snow hasnt melted....? It should have all melted with the sotrm on Thursday/Wednesday that had highs around 10C in many places

Because it always freezes overnight..,

Well people are estmiating over 125 million dollars in damages, not including lost business, I-5 is still closed as are other passes 

We have an estimated 40mil in 2008... don't know anything about the flooding in 2009 though.

Where do you live in Vancouver....? All my friends there say that the snow melted way back last week... 

Dooskie - I agree, there are only a few places that rival the PNC's beauty.

[Japanair]

West side. its finally melting now. there's only 5 cm left.

[seafly4fun]

How come your snow hasnt melted....? It should have all melted with the sotrm on Thursday/Wednesday that had highs around 10C in many places

Because it always freezes overnight..,

Well people are estmiating over 125 million dollars in damages, not including lost business, I-5 is still closed as are other passes 

We have an estimated 40mil in 2008... don't know anything about the flooding in 2009 though.

Where do you live in Vancouver....? All my friends there say that the snow melted way back last week... 

Dooskie - I agree, there are only a few places that rival the PNC's beauty.

]
Blah y'all can have the pnw. I'll take the excitement of the big city of Chicago. Plus the flat land is easier on my scoot. Hills out here in Seattle kill the poor thing.

[Seattle]

Seattle's a big city and we finally got our Chicago snow/cold 

However... the hills could become a littel flatter