Road flooded!

So I am not going anywhere this weekend. And I'm wondering when I'll get to see Kevin now. He's headed to Salem, OR after work. I was on my way headed out to get him from work and drive on down with him, but now he's renting a car and going by himself. I'm kind of sad about that. Around the house things are fine. I drove to the lower elevations of our community and they looked fine too. However the road out of our community is flooded about 4 miles down the road, and it's the only way out and into town. So I'm stuck. I tried leaving in the car, I was able to drive through 4 patches of water on the road, but thought I needed the truck at the next spot. I went home moved our stuff for the weekend to the truck, only to get to a REALLY flooded patch and see flashing lights ahead. This particular creek, Haystack Creek, runs alongside our road out of our neighborhood & it becomes a very dry trickle in the summer. Currently it is about 40 feet wide, flooding it's banks into the surrounding farmland at the spot where the road is flooded. I waited in the truck as I watched a sheriff put a road closed sign on the road and the trucks in front of me turn around. They drove up to me and told me the sheriff is waiting on the other side to ticket anyone who tried to go through, then they headed on home. I watched the sheriff drive through the water in a tow truck, and water went all the way up and into the doors. I'm not going to risk getting water in my cab or to get a ticket, so I turned around and headed back home. Called Kevin and told him what's going on and from there we decided that I'd be staying home and Kevin would get a car and drive down. At first he thought he'd head to Monroe and stay with some cousins, but I told him, if he could get a car he might as well head down since I wouldn't be spending the night with him anyway. He talked to his parents and now things are set in motion that way.

Blogging all of this is my attempt at taking a deep breath, so I hope things make sense in everything here... I'm thinking about the conversation I had with a neighbor. He was talking about heading into town to get things for the weekend. I asked him if he needed anything and he said no, he'd be OK heading back home. I hope that's true. It was funny too because, and I love true Washingtonians, he said "It's not really rainin' anymore so hopefully we'll be able to 'git out tomorrow." Mind you a Californian would call this rain 'El Nino'! I do agree, it's a lot less than it was during the night. I told him that the weather report I read said the Skykomish isn't going to crest until mid Sunday, he seemed surprised by that. Haystack Creek feeds into the Skykomish. So if our creek is flooded now, it'll have to wait until after the river crests before we really see the road clear up.

The cell phone pictures are pretty bad. But maybe they can give you an idea. In the first one I'm trying to show just how close I dared to get. If you look on the side of the road there is only about 3 feet before the water would start to be on the road as well. Looking ahead, where the van is with the break lights, there is water on the road about 3 feet deep. It's hard to see in the picture because the stream and creek meet right at the base of the trees and hill there where it's dark, but it was deep and I didn't dare get closer.

In the second picture I tried to show how wide the creek got. It's normally about 4-6 feet wide at any given spot, and I'd say it's about 25 feet wide at the moment I took that picture. As I talked with people I saw things move an additional foot or so.





The road looks about the same as it did a couple years ago, I guess I should check the local news to see how things are in town. I wonder what this'll mean for all the school kids as they've closed the roads before school usually lets out. Maybe today was a rain day and they're just home anyway, I don't know... but I don't really hear any kids outside, then again it is rainy.

I'm just now trying to get more information myself about how things are, beyond just what I can find on Accuweather. Since I don't have local TV I can't really just turn on the news and find out... it takes a little longer to load the local news websites. Here is what I've found on Komo news so far.

River levels also are rising rapidly at Index on the Skykomish, where flooding also is expected. Rising river levels in Sultan also have been reported this morning.

Emergency officials said both rivers are peaking faster than initially expected due to heavy rain from a series of "Pineapple Express" storms pushing across the region from off the Pacific.

..

Low-lying areas, small streams and creeks, as well as storm-drainage systems, could see localized flooding due to debris clogs and heavy rainfall.

Well, yeah... I'd say that's why I'm back home. I'm just thankful and grateful that our property is at a higher elevation. I just wish they'd make us a second road to this community so we can head out at times like this. I'll be fine. I've weathered this before. So far there is no interruptions to power, and really there isn't enough wind for me to worry about that. And I have food and water. The cats and I will be safe. It's just kind of a bummer being stuck at home, especially when I was looking forward to finally getting out of the house after a long arthritis flare (which I'm still mostly dealing with).

Additional information is updated here from the University of Washington. I just read that the forecast says my road out will be closed, well, it already is... so I'm wondering how good this link is.

Please pray that Kevin is safe and fine driving alone tonight. I'm sure he'll be OK, but the roads are a bit crazy.