The major storm is over and the creeks and rivers  are slowly beginning to return to normal.  Some of the roads are beginning to open up enough to be able to assess the damages.  I took a trip north toward Lilliwaup and was amazed to find more than a dozen mudslides and water over the roadway in countless places along the short stretch from Hoodsport to Lilliwaup.  Two places were especially hit hard.  The worst is probably Holiday Beach, where the creek came over the banks and diverted itself right down the streets.



Here is what Highway 101 looks like through Holiday Beach the next day, when the water had receded enough to even drive through.  Nearly every home in this stretch along the highway suffered damage from water and mud and the water still continues to flow vigorously across the highway down Susan Ave.  The mud is 1 to 3 feet deep in people's yards.

Up the road just a bit further, the Rest-A-While RV Park, is no longer the pleasant little getaway along the Canal it once was.  Sund Creek became a raging torrent, carrying mud, gravel, and even large stumps and trees to deposit along the way.



Most of the RVs had left before the storm started.  In fact, we noticed a steady stream of RVs heading South during a short break in the snow storm on Sunday.  I'm sure they are very glad that they got out of town while they could.



Unfortunately this RV chose to stay and is now trapped behind a wall of mud.  It is hard to imagine the once park-like setting of this particular spot.  Notice the picnic table which came to rest against the telephone pole, having been transported far from its former spot in the campground.

Much of Highway 101 is still covered in mudslides, though people have been finding ways of driving around, through, and over them.  There are so many of these slides that the highway department has been simply clearing a path along one lane and leaving the rest of the debris blocking the other lane.  It will take weeks to move all the material out, one dump truck load at a time.



For more photos from around the Hoodsport area, see my Facebook album where I have posted several more of my photos.  I will continue to post more in this album as I am able to upload them.  For those of you who looked at the album earlier, be sure and check out the new photos I added today.  I also submitted a few photos to KIRO-TV which they published in a slideshow of viewer photos.  Check out this album for some other photos from around Washington showing problems all throughout Western Washington.  There are some interesting photos here.

Tags: weather
Current Location: Hoodsport, WA

What do you get after 10 inches of snow followed by 8 inches of rain?  Floods!  The flooding here in Mason County was record setting.  I was not able to go to work because the highways in all directions were closed due to floods and mudslides.  In fact Hoodsport is still completely isolated with no way to get in or out.  The governor has declared a state of emergency, since the whole state has suffered from disastrous flooding, mudslides, and trees knocked over by very high winds which came with the rain.



This is what the Hood Canal Salmon Hatchery looked like this morning after Finch Creek flooded its banks and overflowed into the hatchery buildings.  Since all of the ponds were completely inundated with water, the fish were able to escape right out into Hood Canal.



This is what is left of the Finch Creek bridge near Lumberman's.  Unfortunately, the trees floating down the creek also took out the water main which crosses here leaving Hoodsport residents without water for an indefinite amount of time.  Flooding and downed trees also blocked Lake Cushman Road (Highway 119) in at least a dozen places and threatens to wash out the highway completely at the lower S curves.  Lake Cushman residents have been without power for more than 24 hours.  It is not likely this will be restored anytime soon since PUD #3 has no way of getting to the lines.  I also noticed two separate areas of the BPA high transmission lines were down.

More rain and high winds are predicted for tonight.  I have more pictures, but they are on my smaller camera which is no longer operational due to the heavy rains I subjected it to.  The above pictures were taken with my good camera just before it completely fogged over and became unusable.

Check back later for more details.

Tags: weather
Current Location: Hoodsport, WA

Today was one of those rare, beautiful days in Washington in which it snowed all day long.  In fact it snowed very hard all day here in Hoodsport.  While others to the north and south of us had only light smatterings of snow, our little town ended up with 7 inches by sunset.  It continued to snow most of the night, but didn't add up much, since the snow became very heavy and packed down pretty good.  All of this led to roads and highways that were quite treacherous along Hood Canal.  I made an attempt to drive 1/2 mile up to Endicotts but had to turn around.  So I just walked up later on.  The sled run there is in perfect form however.



Here the snow plow is plowing Highway 101.  Those of you living in areas where snow is a regular part of Winter travel would be surprised at how treacherous the highways are here, even after being plowed.  For one thing the don't start plowing until there is at least 3-4 inches.  They never use salt (which is a good thing for the cars) and they use rubber blades which don't damage the highways, but also don't scrape the icy stuff very well.



Many people were without power due to trees falling on lines.  While I was out taking photos, I head a sizzling sound and smelled smoke.  Here you can see the reason, an electrical line touching a snow-laden tree branch was sparking and smoking.  It might have caught the tree on fire if it had not been so completely soaked with snow.  Our snow is very heavy and wet, unlike the delightful powdery stuff folks up north get.



This picture was taken at about 1pm, when the snow had just started.  I never did venture out to get another picture at the peak depth.  Although I had several things I planned to do today, they all involved driving somewhere.  Needless to say I just stayed home snuggled by the warm fire, listening to Christmas music and getting organized with my Christmas cards.  I think it took this snow for me to realize that Christmas is really almost here and I'd better get moving.

Tags: weather
Current Location: Hoodsport, WA
Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: A Piano Christmas by Stan Whitmire

Once again, I was driving along last night on my way to Bible study and noticing the beautiful world around me.  This time I happened to spot this rainbow just south of Hoodsport and had to stop the car along the highway and snap some photos.  Once again, the cars went racing by, barely noticing the weather, and I was just stunned by the changes that were happening.



The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.
Psalm 19:1

Tags: weather

The heavens declare the glory of God,
And the sky above proclaims His handiwork.
Psalm 19:1

Did anyone else happen to look outside just after 6pm tonight?  If not you missed one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in months.

Tags: weather

It has rained over a foot here in Hoodsport over the weekend and finally flooded the Skokomish River enough to close both Highway 101 and 106 so that I was not able to come home on Monday night.  So I wandered around Shelton and found shelter at the Blackstad home, much to the delight of their four children.  A rainy night is perfect for a movie, so we made a party out of it complete with popcorn.  Hilarity ensued and a good time was had by all. The family graciously provided a comfortable air mattress in the school room, which worked quite well.

Tags: weather

All you heat lovers out there must be living it up in our 100+ degree weather.  It got up to 96 degrees even here on the cool waters of Hood Canal today, which means that it is still 74 degrees right now at 11:30 at night.  But that's better than 103 in downtown Clackamas, OR.  I visited Wal-Mart tonight and had to stand in line just to get to the aisle with the fans.  They were almost completely out, except for one really expensive model which I finally bought.  Now if it will just get down below 70 outside maybe the fan will do some good.  I guess I should have gone to the shindig where it is a cool 61 degrees. My personal preference would be 48 degrees and raining.

I turns out I have two weddings tomorrow so I will be spending the whole day in Olympia where it is supposed to get up to 100 again tomorrow.  At least the weddings aren't outdoors, though neither of them are in churches large enough to have air conditioning either.

Tags: weather