Kent city officials closed about a dozen streets Wednesday due to flooding, but otherwise the heavy rain had minimal impact on city residents, compared to other Western Washington towns.
Drivers on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning faced delays after the city closed East James Street at the bottom of the hill between Central Avenue and Jason Avenue North. They had to find alternate routes up East Hill, such as Smith Street or South 208th Street.
On the East Hill, Kent and Covington officials closed Southeast 256th Street between 140th Avenue Southeast in Kent and 164th Avenue Southeast in Covington because of deep water on the road.
As of deadline Thursday, Kent officials weren’t sure when the dozen or so streets might reopen.
“We don’t know,” said Ron Halverson, control center technician for the city Public Works Department operations division. “The water is not coming down very quickly.”
City crews will check the roads for damage from the floods before removing roadblock signs.
Other street closures in Kent included:
Woodford Avenue North, George Street and State Avenue North (three streets just north of East James Street); 76th Avenue South between South 212th and 228th streets; 72nd Avenue South between South 212th and 216th; 81st Avenue South between South 200th and 198th; 148th Avenue Southeast at Big Soos Creek near Southeast 256th Street; and Southeast 278th Street between 152nd Avenue Southeast and 150th Place Southeast.
Kent commuters who take the Sounder trains had to find an alternate way to work on Thursday. Sound Transit officials canceled the commuter trains between Tacoma and Seattle because of heavy rain and flooding.
Buildings in Kent escaped damage.
“Some of the floodwaters along Mill Creek were lapping up against buildings, but did not get inside buildings,” said Larry Blanchard, city public works director, in a phone interview Thursday morning. “We also checked our levees and bridges and everything was fine.”
City crews piled up sandbags Wednesday evening outside of the Kent Senior Activity Center, 600 E. Smith Street, as a precaution in case water reached the facility.
Water flooded the parking lot at the senior center, but had gone away by Thursday morning, said Lea Bishop, facility manager for the Senior Center.
Kent had 4 inches of rain from Monday through Wednesday, according to the Weather Underground Web site at www.wunderground.com. That included 2.2 inches on Wednesday.
No more rain is expected Thursday or Friday. There is a 50 percent chance of rain on Saturday night, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters predict the sun would be out by Tuesday with a high temperature of 48.
“We had two weeks of snow and a week of wet, warm weather,” Blanchard said. “We’re hoping there will be a little bit of a calm for awhile and we can catch our breath a little bit.”
Despite the heavy rains, the city remained pretty calm for the Kent Fire Department.
“We had a couple of flooded basements but nothing earth-shattering,” said Kyle Ohashi, public information officer for the Kent Fire Department. “It’s been pretty quiet despite the weather. We did not get hit as bad as other areas.”
The city of Kent avoided any flooding from the Green River, which stayed below its flood stage of 64 feet, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The river reached about 3 feet below flood stage on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Corps officials help control flooding of the Green River by holding back water at a reservoir behind the Howard Hanson Dam near Palmer.
Kent residents headed on roads to Eastern Washington or Oregon faced major obstacles.
The three major highways over the Cascade mountains remained closed Thursday morning because of avalanches and mudslides caused by rain. That included Interstate 90 at Snoqualime Pass, U.S. Highway 2 at Stevens Pass and U.S. 12 at White Pass.
Flooding also closed a 20-mile stretch of I-5 Wednesday in the Centralia and Chehalis area midway between Seattle and Portland. State Department of Transportation officials said that stretch of the freeway could be closed for up to four days.
Trains were shut down as well. Amtrak suspended service between Seattle and Portland at least through Thursday because of mudslides.
King County Executive Ron Sims signed an emergency proclamation Thursday to allow a waiver from standard procurement procedures to speed up response times for departments to make repairs.
Crews worked to clear mudslides, closed roads and monitored river levees and other flood-control facilities throughout the county. Public Health of Seattle and King County provided cots to the Pierce County Health Department for evacuated nursing home residents. Metro Transit provided buses Wednesday to help with the evacuation of a North Bend nursing home.
On Wednesday, state and local officials encouraged evacuations of more than 26,000 people in Orting, 12,000 in Puyallup and more than 5,000 in Fife because of the Puyallup River flooding.
Contact Steve Hunter at 253-872-6600, ext. 5052 or shunter@kentreporter.com.
Street information
Kent: www.ci.kent.wa.us/roadclosure/index.aspx
King County: www.kingcounty.gov/roadalert.
State: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic.
Weather information
National Weather Service Seattle office: www.wrh.noaa.gov/sew/
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