At a Monday afternoon meeting in the Lewis County Courthouse, representatives from the Washington state Department of Transportation (WSDOT), Washington State Patrol (WSP), Lewis County Public Works, the county Department of Emergency Management (DEM), other law enforcement agencies and emergency responders met for the second time to draft a plan for what to do when Interstate 5 must be closed.
The creation of the plan was spurred on by flooding earlier this year.
On the morning of Friday, Jan. 7, as the Chehalis and Skookumchuck rivers rose and flooded streets in the Twin Cities, WSDOT closed I-5 from exit 68 at Highway 12 to exit 88 at Ground Mound.
The department issued a statement that the flood waters receded more quickly than anticipated and reopened the freeway about four hours later, but the move still came with expected controversy.
Every road closure during a flood is a cost-benefit analysis.
Costs include residents’ ability to evacuate flooded areas, or can come in actual dollar amounts for lost commerce. Benefits may include saving lives. If a road is closed too late, drivers may find themselves in more water than is safe to drive in. According to the National Weather Service, just 6 inches of water can cause a driver to lose control of their vehicle.
Scale that analysis for a road the size of I-5, and it’s going to become political. Long-term closure from flooding in 2007 was estimated to cost the state tens of millions of dollars.
Shortly after the Jan. 7 closure, Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope and Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza posted a video driving on the un-flooded northbound lanes, calling to WSDOT to reopen the roadway. Likewise, after a meeting with WSDOT, Commissioner Lindsey Pollock took to Facebook after the freeway reopened, claiming her local perspective aided in the department’s decision to reopen, saying, “A single voice of reason can make a difference.”
Because of all this, public agencies on Monday were trying to get ahead of the issue with a plan. The last I-5 closure plan was created in 2002, according to DEM Deputy Director Ross McDowell.
In early April, McDowell told the county commissioners the first meeting offered a chance for every party to air grievances over the past handling of the freeway closure.
“This first one, it gave opportunities for people to air what they wanted to say and to be told pretty much, ‘OK. We got it. Let's move on from here and let's make it right,’” McDowell said.
When the teams met again this Monday — though it was not without some tension between WSDOT representatives and other officials — it was mostly a run through of the plan before it could be sent out for final approval.
The main concern addressed by local officials was the lack of warning before closure.
Lewis County Public Works Director Josh Metcalf said to Michael Southwick, WSDOT’s corridor operations manager, “What I don’t want to get into is what happened last time, is that you close I-5 and we’re caught with our pants down because we don’t have any idea that’s coming. An hour isn’t reasonable (warning). Twelve hours is ideal, but we know that’s not realistic.”
Southwick responded that the plan may just have to include that warning from the state must come as early as possible because sometimes closures happen last minute.
Metcalf said the prior warning would allow Public Works to create reasonable detours that could prevent further congestion of people potentially evacuating from an emergency such as a flood. Riverside Fire Authority Chief Mike Kytta echoed the same thing, saying that the freeway’s closure drastically increased traffic in Centralia, causing problems for emergency responders.
Southwick admitted “we could have just had a single lane last time,” at least partially validating local officials’ qualms with the way the closure was handled.
Though the plan was spurred on by the flooding this year, once completed it should have protocols for short-term (up to one hour), medium-term (between one and five hours) and long-term closures over five hours for any emergency. Incidents discussed at the meeting included an active shooter situation, spills or earthquakes.
The solutions for each type of closure, however, remain at large. Many bridges in the county have weight limits and no roads offer the capacity of the interstate.
“The real crux here is it’s an ‘I-5 detour plan,’ not necessarily an ‘I-5 stop everything plan,’” said Centralia Police Chief Stacy Denham.
Agencies must also continue to prepare for the unexpected, McDowell said. Every new flood brings new challenges. From now on, the relevant agencies will try to meet on the closure plan before major weather events and at least biannually, he said, to create a “unified command” over decisions.
“There’s the piece we missed last time, huh?” Southwick said with a laugh.
He was met with silence from the rest of the room.
