Flood in W Pacific, Washington

A Pacific storm on December 27-28 dumped 2 to 5 inches of rain in lowlands and 6 to 10 inches of rain in the Coast Range. This deluge, on top of heavy rain December 25-26, combined with saturated soils and a rapidly melted heavy low elevation snowpack and frozen subsurface soils from the pre-Holiday arctic outbreak to create widespread lowland flooding. The Willapa and Cowlitz River areas were the hardest hit, but fortunately the rain ended December 28 and flood waters receded rapidly Many highways were closed due to slides and washouts, especially along the coast and Coast Range. Fortunately, no deaths or serious injuries were reported during this episode.