Flood — Lewis, Washington

2007-12-02 to 2007-12-05 · near Doty, Lewis, Washington

Event narrative

The Chehalis river at Centralia reached a record flood stage of 74.78 feet. An 81-year old man disappeared along a stream near Winlock. More than 450 homes were damaged outside of the cities of Chehalis and Centralia. About 65 homes were destroyed, while just over 200 had major damage. Over 1800 farm animals died. A 20 mile stretch of Interstate-5 was closed for 3 days as parts of the interstate were under as much as 10 feet of water as well as the major north-south rail line. In Centralia about 350 homes were damaged or destroyed. About 1100 people used shelters. Many schools were closed for a week. Some communities had no fresh water. More than 20 square blocks near downtown Centralia were under water.

Wider weather episode

Record flooding occurred on the Chehalis, Skokomish, and Elwha Rivers. In addition to the record flooding, major flooding occurred on the Bogachiel River. Flooding also occurred on the Nooksack, Skagit, Stillaguamish, SF Stillaguamish, Snohomish, Skykomish, Snoqualmie, Puyallup, Deschutes, Nisqually, Skookumchuck, Dungeness Rivers and Issaquah Creek. Significant and damaging urban and small stream flooding occurred in Snohomish, King, Lewis, Thurston, Mason, and Kitsap counties, as 3 to 8 inches of rain fell over the area with the exception of 10 to 20 inches in the Willapa Hills and southern Olympic mountain areas. At least 130 people had to be rescued by helicopter. Two men died as a result of river flooding - one near Winlock in Lewis county and another along the Tahuya river in Mason county. A landslide hit a house and buried a man in his sleep near Hoodsport in Mason county.

These events were part of a significant deep Pacific storm system offshore the also initially generated lowland snow in western Washington and later created strong winds in primarily the coastal region and avalanches in the Cascades.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (46.6300, -123.2700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 66625. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.