Call it a late Christmas miracle.
A preliminary assessment of last week’s flood event conducted by City of Centralia staff shows only three homes were inundated with water and nearly all of them sustained only minimal damage — many just wet carpets and water 6 inches or less.
“It’s nothing at all,” said Community Development Director Emil Pierson, who presented the findings Tuesday evening to the Centralia City Council.
“It is absolutely amazing that we had the fourth-highest Skookumchuck, fourth-highest Chehalis flood event, and the city basically came out unscathed — very little to no damage in most of the community,” he continued.
Pierson said the city isn’t expecting many more property owners to come forward at this point.
This flood was very different, he said. Although homes in the Waunch Prairie received a great deal of flood water, in most cases right up to their doorsteps, the homes most impacted were near the Centralia Outlets, around the Belmont Avenue area. Portions of nearby Harrison Avenue were inundated with upwards of 30 inches in some spots.
Riverside and Borst parks also received quite a bit of damage from flood waters, which mostly uprooted trees and left behind debris.
Flooding in the Chehalis Basin could have been much worse.
As the Skookumchuck, Chehalis and Newaukum rivers surged late last week into flood stage, dire forecasts predicted record-breaking flooding with a rainstorm that was due to hit the Twin Cities Friday. About 8 to 11 inches of snow blanketed the surrounding hills of the Chehalis Basin only a week prior to the heavy rain.
That storm turned out to be less severe in nature and it moved north slightly, resulting in historically high flooding but not the worst-case scenario.
As China Creek inundated downtown Centralia and closed off roads Thursday, fears pivoted toward the possibility a worse flood situation along the Skookumchuck, which was forecasted to break the all-time high record by 2 and ½ feet Friday.
In reality, the Skookumchuck in Centralia crested about a foot below the 191-foot record at 190.18 feet.
“Had it gone up to 193.4, we would have been in trouble,” said Centralia Public Works Director Kim Ashmore.
The levee along the southern flank of the Skookumchuck River in Centralia played a big role in preventing flood waters from inundating the city’s core residential area, though water did inundate neighborhoods on the Waunch Prairie and overflowed state Route 507 with upwards of 3 feet in some areas.
Patty Page, city engineer, and other city workers walked and watched the levee around the clock. Despite only having “a little bit of room” from the top, as Page said, what city staff saw was positive.
“The levee did its job. It held all the water that was there, and so we’re very happy that it did its job there,” Ashmore said.
The major blind spot for the city was China Creek, which rose swiftly and dramatically in mere hours and overwhelmed downtown streets with flood water, multiple feet deep in some areas.
Ashmore said he plans on reaching out to the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority to see if the city could apply for some river gauges to be set up at Little Hanaford Road and at Centralia College.
“You heard it tonight: There’s a lot of people looking at those gauges, or looking at that prediction, and going, ‘Do I need to get out, don’t I, what’s it going to do?’ We have no data, no information on China Creek,” Ashmore said.
Contrary to some complaints, Ashmore said that a pair of flood mitigation projects along Little Hanaford and Gold Street in recent years have had positive impacts on flooding.
Police Chief Stacy Denham said his department conducted eight water rescues. Riverside Fire Authority, he said, responded to four rescues.
The department utilized a high-water rescue military vehicle to conduct rescues, Denham said, noting that it became “invaluable” and prevented wading through high water and even came in handy when responding to regular calls, such as domestic disputes.
Drivers traveling through hazardous standing water proved to be a big challenge for many police and fire agencies this flood cycle, as at least two dozen were reported throughout Lewis County last week.
Ashmore said he utilized a one-time grant program brought to his attention by Office of Chehalis Basin Director Andrea McNamara Doyle to purchase an additional four water pumps and 60 road signs to deter individuals from driving through standing water downtown during future flood events.
“I’ve heard a lot from a lot of citizens about people still driving through water. What we thought was, let’s get some more signs, let’s get some more barricades and really try to block off these streets where people are really impacted by somebody driving through 30 inches of water,” Ashmore said. “If they drive through there, and that water is pushed up and makes a 4-, 5-foot wave, people are getting more damage than they need and we really want to try and block those roads off.”
