Good recession -- Floods ease

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Flood waters continued to recede Friday, even as the effects lingered in some areas near Ellensburg, Selah and in the Lower Valley.

Emergency response officials began to gear down from three days of high water that, in some cases, paralleled the experience of the last major flood in 1996.

The travel paralysis caused by closed freeways in the Cascades also began to subside as Snoqualmie Pass opened to traffic Friday. Some roads in the Ellensburg area were opened for residents to return to their homes.

But none of that was consolation to Kim McLoud, whose family had to flee their home on South Rushmore Road in East Selah late Thursday when water levels rose and caused slight damage to their home.

They were still dealing with a flooded road Friday afternoon.

"It kind of went around our house. It was amazing," she said.

Some problems for areas next to the Yakima River will continue into today, when a flood warning is expected to expire, ending three days of rising water.

Selah Fire Chief Jerry Davis said water reached areas and in depths in his community that weren't reached in 1996.

"It could be the water started opening up new channels. We have water into areas where we hadn't had it before," he said.

The Army Corps of Engineers on Friday afternoon was still strengthening the levee that protects the Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, east of Yakima.

Scott Schafer, acting manager for the treatment plant that serves much of the urban Yakima area, said the emergency action by the Corps was prompted by evidence of seepage through the levee.

He said the treatment plant was never in danger.

An emergency declaration issued by Yakima County commissioners authorized the Corps of Engineers to begin adding large rocks to stabilize the levee.

The corps also added rocks to the levee just south of the Terrace Heights bridge.

Elsewhere in the Yakima Valley, the flood crest moving down the Yakima River posed some problems in the Central Valley, where Jones Road was closed from North Camas Road to North Track Road.

Portions of other roads were also closed Friday, the Yakima County Office of Emergency Management reported.

In Ellensburg, some residents were allowed to return to their homes Friday as the water receded. An evacuation of the Riverbottom Road area was canceled.

The county Emergency Operations Center scaled back to a recovery mode, officials said.

Residents there and those living along the Yakima River in Yakima County are now getting ready for the recovery phase.

Kittitas County officials are asking residents to add up their losses as part of a request for disaster assistance.

State health officials urged rural residents whose property was flooded to boil water from their well and have it tested to make sure the water is not contaminated.

"It's better to know what you have," said Carolyn Cox, public information coordinator for the state Office of Drinking Water in the state Health Department.

Selah Fire's Davis said he's glad to see the water receding.

"We are happy to see the daylight. It's been a long couple of days," he said.