Many Valley residents play wading game

YAKIMA, Wash. - Ever so slowly, the high water of 2009 is beginning to loosen its grip on streams and rivers -- and the residents -- of Central Washington.

The Yakima River near Ellensburg peaked Thursday and is forecast to drop below flood stage Friday afternoonjust south of Union Gap.

And while cooler, drier weather will return, troubles were far from over Thursday evening.

A steady stream of dump trucks were working into the night to shore up a Yakima River dike near State Route 24. And high water forced the closure of a smattering of Yakima Valley roads, including State Route 22 north of Toppenish.

Officials were guardedly optimistic that Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass could re-open today, but the closure is already estimated to have cost Central Washington millions in lost time and delayed shipments.

"Our crews have been working very hard and we're optimistic that we can possibly get I-90 open at some point on Friday," state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said in a news release. "We'll have a better idea Friday morning."

State crews and emergency contractors were working around the clock to repair the highway. On Thursday evening, snow was falling over the pass, and workers were back plowing snow.

On a more positive note, the eastbound lanes of White Pass were reopened Thursday, as were both directions on Stevens Pass.

While some scattered flooding was reported in the Yakima Valley, such as the River Ridge Golf Course near Selah, it was Kittitas County residents who continued to face the most serious problems on Thursday.

Authorities evacuated 20 people from River Bottom Road, southwest of Ellensburg, after it was feared a levee could fail under the unrelenting pressure of flood waters that consumed rural areas around Ellensburg.

River Bottom Road was just one of more than a dozen roads closed as water inundated areas around Kittitas County.

Conditions were relatively stable, according to Kittitas County Undersheriff Clayton Myers. "We are still in the rescue phase. We don't anticipate transitioning to recovery for a day or two."

To the west, county authorities were working to get water and power to the unincorporated community of Elk Meadows near Easton along I-90, an area that routinely suffers flooding during high-water events.

Rescue personnel pulled a 53-year-old woman from the hood of her car after it was swamped by flood waters on Lambert Road in the Thorp area.

Myers said evacuees are anxious to return to their homes. But authorities must determine roadways, utilities and drinking water are safe.

State Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, following a tour of damaged areas Thursday on U.S. Highway 97, called the damage unprecedented.

"I've never seen anything like this. This is the worst flood and landslide damage I've ever seen in Kittitas County," he said in a news release.

Authorities in both Yakima and Kittitas counties expressed surprise over the rapid rise of the Naches and Yakima rivers.

The Yakima River at Parker rose more than seven feet between noon Wednesday and 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

The Naches River at Naches rose two feet over the same period.

A stream of county dump trucks were busy Thursday evening ferrying gravel to a Yakima River dike north of West Birchfield Road off South Keys Road after inspectors discovered seepage earlier. The work was described as precautionary.

Elsewhere in Yakima County, authorities closed the Nile Road in the Nile area Thursday because of water over the road. Other, minor road closures also occurred.

Yakima County commissioners declared an emergency Thursday, largely as a precaution that would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to be called in if emergency levee repairs are needed in the urban Yakima area.

County Engineer Gary Ekstedt said the declaration allows the corps to mobilize and begin work immediately.

"Our primary focus is to monitor the levees through Yakima and work with the city of Yakima to make sure the wastewater treatment plant levee is monitored," he said. "If they need work, the corps can do that, but we need the emergency declaration."

Ekstedt said the worst of the problems in the county's small streams appear to be over. Flows on Ahtanum Creek were reported stabilized or slightly dropping.

County residents along the Yakima River seemed to be making do with the high water.

Dean Laurvick, owner of the River Ridge Golf Course at the entrance to Selah, said high water began hitting his property Wednesday night.

The golf club house basement was completely flooded. Laurvick said he will have to call it wet storage rather than the dry storage for which the basement was intended.

"I'm just hanging out and waiting here," he said Thursday.

South of Yakima, Doug and Tami Scott placed sandbags around their home's basement door.

They were aware of the flood threat when they bought the property five years ago. Just Thursday morning, he watched several bald eagles jousting over a perch on a tree.

"We are sitting here with a front-row seat on Mother Nature," Scott said. "We will take the risk that comes with it," he added.

Upstream, Zeferina Padilla, who lives near the Parker Road Bridge, south of Union Gap, said she had packed up important papers like birth certificates for her four children in case she has to flee.

She has family in Toppenish where she could take refuge if needed, she said.

"I'm not moving. I'm just getting ready if we have to leave for some reason," she said.

Padilla said she can hear logs and chunks of ice banging off the bridge piers during the night.

"I don't know how to swim," she said, laughing nervously.

* Yakima Herald-Republic staff reporter Ross Courtney contributed to this story.