Heavy Rain — King, Washington

2015-11-17 · near Skykomish Arpt, King, Washington

Event narrative

Heavy rain swelled a creek that undermined the foundation of a US Hwy 2 bridge outside of Skykomish, closing a 15-mile stretch of the highway for about a week.

Wider weather episode

The Elwha River flexed its new muscles during the most recent round of storms and severely damaged Olympic Hot Springs Road and effectively buried a campground in silt.

The river rose to 23.19 feet, major flood, on Nov. 17 during a heavy rainstorm that produced 5.6 inches of rain on that date in the Elwha watershed.

When the water receded, Olympic National Park officials discovered the water had washed out a 60-foot-long section of Olympic Hot Springs Road, and much of Elwha Campground had nearly disappeared under more than a foot of silt and debris.

It is the highest the river has reached since the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams were removed, and the seventh highest crest recorded.

The Stillaguamish near Arlington was at major flood stage, and prompted a shutdown of SR 530 east of the city. Sections of US 101 near Port Angeles and US 2 Gold Bar-Skykomish were closed due fallen trees and water over the road.

At the Sultan fire station, employees moved fire trucks as flood water inched closer.

On Main Street, the water rose so quickly that one woman's only option was to escape out her front window.

Heavy rain swelled a creek which kept a 15 mile stretch of US highway 2 closed after finding that the storm-fed creek had undermined the bridge foundation.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (47.7138, -121.3413)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 608921. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.