A landslide in Pe Ell blocked state Route 6 and destroyed a home owned by Pe Ell Fire Chief Mike Krafczyk in December 2007. It was just one of many slides that occurred that year. Many others have been reported before and since, both on state Route 6 and on U.S. Highway 12. The county is currently one of several considered at "extreme" risk for additional slides.
By Dameon Pesanti
dpesanti@chronline.com
Due to the heavy inundation of rain over the last couple days, all of Lewis County was on extreme landslide hazard warning Monday, according to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
“Landslide initiation is expected to be very frequent and widespread,” the DNR website said of Lewis County.
The majority of coastal and peninsula counties are under extreme warnings as well. The information can be viewed on the DNR’s “Shallow Landslide Hazard Map for Washington State.”
The map isn’t an official warning, and cannot be used to definitely predict if or when a slide will occur, officials say.
Landslide risks are determined on passed and predicted rainfall over a 48-hour period.
“The rainfall totals in your area over the last 24 hours are up over three inches almost everywhere,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Josh Smith. “The way that all the precipitation was coming in ... you guys got the brunt of it.”
A major slide closed all four lanes of a portion of U.S. Highway 12 at Aberdeen Monday morning.
“As moisture comes in from the ocean, the water is forced up the mountains and the clouds are wrung out like a wet rag over Lewis County,” Smith said.
The DNR partners with the National Weather Service to develop the shallow landslide susceptibility model. “Shallow” refers to slides that occur around 10-feet below the surface.
To view the landslide map visit https://fortress.wa.gov/dnr/landslidewarning.
