Flash Flood — Whitman, Washington

2019-04-09 to 2019-04-10 · near Pullman, Whitman, Washington

$1.1M

Property damage

Event narrative

Missouri Flat Creek experienced a Flash Flood which resulted in the North Grand Avenue business district being inundated with up to 4 feet of water in places. Numerous businesses were damaged and parked cars were floated and carried away. Pullman police and fire crews made numerous water rescues of stranded customers and employees of at least 4 businesses including the rescue of 16 people from one business. There were no known injuries and by the next morning the creek had receded back into it's banks.

Wider weather episode

Beginning on April 6th and continuing through April 10th a series of Pacific atmospheric rivers were directed into Oregon, southeast Washington and central Idaho saturating the ground with heavy rainfall. During this 4 day period the COOP station at Kamiah, ID reported 1.86 inches of rain, Elk River, ID reported 2.94 inches of rain, Moscow, ID 3.44 inches, Potlatch 2.46 inches, Dworshack Fish Hatchery 3.08 inches , with the ASOS at Pullman, WA recording 2.88 inches of rain. By the 9th of April a rain storm during the afternoon and evening hours overwhelmed the saturated soil and resulted in widespread areal flooding issues from swollen streams and rivers.

During the evening of April 9th the city of Pullman experienced Flash Flooding as heavy rain to the north of the city drained down the Missouri Flat Creek drainage. The business district along North Grand Avenue was inundated with multiple feet of water which damaged numerous businesses and floated cars form parking lots along the road.

The Missouri Flat Creek flood then drained into the South Fork of the Palouse River in downtown Pullman which was already rising and would peak just at Flood Stage later in the evening with minimal further damage along the river bottom lands.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (46.7331, -117.1834)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 818104. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.