Valley slowly gets back to normal after flood
January 22, 2009
By Michael Rowe
Snoqualmie residents and volunteers continue to cleanup after a Jan. 7 flood that affected much of downtown.
For the second weekend in a row, volunteers descended on Snoqualmie to pick up flood debris. However, this weekend saw fewer volunteers than the Jan. 10 weekend directly after the floods when 200 helpers arrived for cleanup efforts.
Alan Berner/The Seattle Times
After disposing of flooded personal effects, many people are now in the long-term phase of the cleanup, ripping out soaked drywall and making other repairs, Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson said.
City building inspectors visited homes damaged by the flood and found that 238 homes had damage to living spaces. There are about 600 homes in the downtown Snoqualmie area, which means that the flood damaged about 40 percent of homes in that area. During the 1990 flood, about 60 percent of downtown Snoqualmie homes were damaged, Larson said.
Of the homes damaged in the downtown area, 30 homes that were elevated after the 1990 flood received no damage. Larson thinks that this will encourage people to elevate their homes to prevent future floods. He said that about 13 homeowners have recently applied for funding to elevate their houses.
King County has extended the deadline for reporting flood damage to Jan. 24. When the final damage reports are prepared, the county will submit them to the state, which in turn submits them to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Damage reports may be made online at www.kingcounty.gov/prepare, or by phone to the county’s damage reporting hotline at 1-800-523-5044.
“We’re pretty confident, given our experience with past flood events that it will qualify for FEMA help,” Larson said.
One indicator of a return to normalcy is that fewer people have been bringing flood-damaged personal items to the Centennial Field drop-off location. The city and its partners closed down the Centennial Field flood debris drop-off location Jan. 19 in response to fewer people brining materials to dispose of.
The collection site at the King Street downtown parking lot will continue to be staffed through Friday, Jan. 23, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Residents who need curbside collection can call the Snoqualmie Emergency Operations Center at 888-5911 and provide their address. Collection of flood debris within homes is available for elderly or infirm residents by calling the emergency operations center.
The need for volunteers has also slowed, and the city reports that it no longer requires the public’s assistance. Residents who need volunteer assistance can also call the emergency operations center.
The city is concerned about residents falling victim to shady home repair contractors. The city suggests that, at a minimum, residents should make sure that the contractors they hire are licensed, bonded and insured. The city posted a brochure on its Web site from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries entitled “Hiring a Contractor or Remodeler? What You Should Know.” Other resources for hiring contractors are located at
www.ci.snoqualmie.wa.us.
Another sign that things are returning to normal is that Meadowbrook Way reopened Jan. 16 after being closed for just more than a week. The roadway was closed from near the Snoqualmie Casino north to State Route 202. Interim Public Works director Alan Lobdell said that a section of the road’s bedding – the foundation that the road sits on – was washed out by the flooding in the same spot that had been damaged by the November 2008 flood.
Lobdell said that, this time, city crews worked to repair the damage. After the November 2008 floods, the city contracted with the county to repair the roads. Lobdell hopes that work done to seal the road might prevent another washout.
With Meadowbrook Way back in operation, all of the roads in Snoqualmie closed by the January 2009 flood are back in service.
State Route 202 between Snoqualmie and Fall City was also reopened late last week after being shut down for a week due to a washout caused by the flood.
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