Nearly a week after the Newaukum River rose over its banks, life settled down enough that dairy farmer Roy Osborn was able to make his Monday night bowling league, with his dairy farmer team members. "We don't miss that for nothing," Osborn said on Tuesday. The inundation of water at his dairy on Labree Road outside Chehalis had left its mark just about the way Osborn had expected. "We're pretty much batting about the same as last year," Osborn said. At its worst, his cows were standing in two- to four-feet of water. But only the milking stock stayed put during the flood. That Wednesday morning, Osborn and his workers had moved close to 200 calves and "dry stock" to two other farms to wait out the flood. They began bringing them home last Friday. The third-generation dairy farmer has been in the business 11 years, but has been around it all his life. He has five full-time employees, some are his family members. During last year's flood, Osborn lost 178 cows from his second dairy on Ceres Hill, where he had been set up only three weeks. None of his animals drowned last week, but by Monday, one calf had died, probably from the stress of the move, according to Osborn's daughter, Cassie Fuller. "A lot of them got diarrhea, this one's skinny cause she got sick," Fuller said on Monday as she set out to bottle feed the little ones. Randy Kunde, the dairy's herdsman, and his two teenage sons stayed overnight during the worst of it at Roy and Joyce Osborn's farmhouse. The driver was not able to get in on Thursday to pick up the milk, because all routes were impassible, but showed up on Friday. Osborn normally ships some 30,000 pounds of milk out each day, but his tank can hold a day and a half of product. Kunde estimated 10 to 15 cows got pneumonia. He later found another on Monday morning. "For mastitis, we had about 15 flare ups," Kunde said. "We're still treating for pneumonia." During the worst of it, they kept the pumps running to keep the water out of the milking parlor. Outside, they had to wade through deep water to handle operations. "The water was raging so fast," Kunde said. "It was so noisy, you couldn't hear." The Yelm resident estimated he got six or seven hours of sleep during the four-day ordeal last week. "This 100-year-floods two years in a row is getting old," he said. Bob Amrine, district manager for Lewis County Conservation District, estimated there are about three dozen dairies in Lewis County. As far as he knew, the Osborn's were the only ones to have problems last week, Amrine said. "Last week's event wasn't as bad for our dairies as the December 2007 event," he said. One dairy which flooded last year is shutting down, he added. Waters rose fast and furious across roadways and pastures along the Newaukum River on Wednesday of last week, from its headwaters outside of Onalaska through northern Napavine to just west of Interstate 5 where it parallels the freeway heading north to meet in Chehalis with the Chehalis River. The river hit its flood stage of 10.5 feet at about sunrise on last Wednesday and roughly met the 1996 record of over 13 feet. Fire districts around the river reported no rescues or injuries, but several residents evacuated themselves before the flood hit. This week, after the waters receded, there was little evidence of damage. At the far east end of the North Fork Newaukum, some banks were lined with overturned trees. At the corner of North Fork and Tauscher roads, one house was drying out after being inundated two years in a row. The interchange for I-5 at the Rush Road exit in the north end of Napavine, saw flooded roadways, but most structures there appeared to have been spared. Bethel Church stayed high and dry, but was among the buildings at the Rush Road interchange that saw parking lots turn into lakes. "We all sort of become little islands," afternoon receptionist Amy Scott said. "It gets us enough to be nervous." Esther Evans left her home on a low spot of Middle Fork Road off Jackson Highway after watching water flow over her road, carrying mice floating on a log. She returned home to find her home dry. "Had it been another inch, it would have been in our house," Evans said. Sharyn L. Decker: (360) 807-8235
