Record rain hits Rain City

Record rain fell on the Seattle area in unrelenting, if not quite biblical sheets yesterday, bringing flood warnings for 10 Washington rivers, closing roads, unleashing a few mudslides — even prompting the distribution of sandbags for Seattle homeowners trying to keep water from seeping into their garages and basements.

All day, all night, rain fell, with the National Weather Service reporting an all-time record for a single day. The old record of 3.41 inches, set Nov. 20, 1959, was surpassed — almost laughably early — shortly after 5 p.m. at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. By 1 a.m. today, 5.02 inches had fallen, which set the record. The heavy downpour stopped over night and the drizzle began, adding 0.16 more inches of rain by 8:30 a.m.

The old record for Oct. 20, perhaps barely worth mentioning: 1.27 inches in 1956.

No injuries were reported in the state. At 8 a.m. this morning, about 2,500 Seattle City Light customers were without power, all of them on the north and east sides of Queen Anne.

Usually hard-to-impress meteorologists were giving this chapter in Seattle's precipitation history some respect.

"It started after midnight, and it kept going and going and going," said National Weather Service meteorologist Allen Kam.

The "conveyor-belt type situation," as Kam put it, involved a strong jet stream lodged over the area and warm, moist air streaming up from the south. The so-called Pineapple Express, which brought a high temperature of 65 to Sea-Tac yesterday, should start budging today.

The forecast is for more rain today, though it may stop at times. Highs will be in the 60s until a cold front arrives, probably tomorrow, with drier conditions expected by the weekend, Kam said.

The Skagit River in northwest Washington appeared to pose the greatest threat. It crested at about 42.2 feet — about 14 feet above flood stage — at 6:45 a.m. this morning near Concrete. Residents of low-lying areas near Concrete and Marblemount were being evacuated and shelters were opened. In Hamilton, 110 people had shown up at the shelter at the First Baptist Church over night.

Don McKeehen, spokesman for Skagit County Emergency Operations, said the National Guard had been called in to assist with evacuations.

An estimated 400 to 500 volunteers were laying down sandbags at the Revetment, a 3/4-mile-long stretch of public parking that borders the Skagit River in downtown Mount Vernon.

They were expecting to lay down about 100,000 sandbags in preparation for the big swell, expected about 7 p.m. tonight.

The parking lot is the primary buffer to the downtown businesses and municipal buildings.

"Right now, what we're trying to do is protect the economics of our downtown property," said Ron Wheeler, a pastor, who was sandbagging with people from his church. "But on the other hand, this has been a positive experience in bringing a lot of people together."

Officials at United General Hospital in Sedro Woolley evacuated all 17 patients because of the flood, and moved them by ambulance to Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon. A primary concern is protecting the computers and medical records at the single-level building, said Arne Eriksen, the hospital's safety officer.

Flood warnings also were issued for the Nooksack in Whatcom County, the Stillaguamish and Skykomish in Snohomish County, the Tolt and Snoqualmie in east King County, the Satsop in Grays Harbor County, the Elwha and Dungeness on the Olympic Peninsula and the Skokomish in Mason County, near Olympia.

As the rapture of a gorgeous, especially dry summer became nearly impossible to recall yesterday, reports of the deluge came pouring in: more than 6 inches by late afternoon in Shelton and over 8 inches in Lilliwaup, both in Mason County; more than 3 inches in Gig Harbor in just seven hours.

A rain gauge in Hoodsport overflowed, unable to measure beyond the 7 inches that washed in.

In Olympia, by 6 p.m., a record for the date had been smashed with 3.13 inches.

"People are calling saying the water's coming through light fixtures, leaking skylights. It's coming in four different spots in the ceiling," said Gloria Aguilar, secretary and bookkeeper at the Roof Doctor in Shelton.

Aguilar had been taking calls for emergency repairs around town steadily since 8 a.m. Her house, she declared, was fine. She recently got a new roof, "half-off" she pointed out, courtesy of her employer.

Throughout the day, transportation and utility crews around Western Washington struggled to keep up, putting up barricades, clearing storm drains, removing the muck where plugged culverts overflowed.

Highway 2 over Stevens Pass was closed late last night after a landslide buried the roadway. Debris struck one vehicle, but no one was hurt, according to the State Patrol. One lane was reopened this morning.

A mudslide closed two westbound lanes of Interstate 90, six miles east of North Bend.

In Clallam County, both lanes of Highway 112 near the entrance to the Makah Reservation remained closed after a sinkhole 150 feet wide and 40 feet deep washed out both lanes of the highway over the weekend.

In Mason County, where more than a half-foot of rain fell yesterday, numerous roads remained closed this morning, according to Sandi Kvarnstrom of county's emergency management division.

Highway 101 was closed about five miles north of Shelton, where flooding damaged the Purdy Creek bridge. It was reopened this morning.

Meanwhile, Highway 106 remained closed from Hood Canal to Belfair due to multiple mudslides. Kvarnstrom said at least two dozen more roads were closed because of washouts, slides and high water. Schools in three Mason County districts were closed.

The Skokomish River remained above flood stage this morning but has begun to recede. Kvarnstrom said there were no reports of flooded homes or evacuations in the Skokomish River valley.

There was little damage or continued flooding reported in Thurston or Grays Harbor counties.

"The sun's out here and the rivers are going down," said deputy sheriff Matt Organ said this morning.

Organ said there were no evacuations yesterday, other than a few horses and cows that had to be rescued from flooded fields. There were a few places where people still could not leave their homes because of flooded roads, "but that's fairly common around here," he said.

On Highway 20, the North Cascades Highway, slides deposited "rocks as big as Volkswagens" and debris 10 to 15 feet deep, said state Transportation Department spokeswoman Jamie Holter. The slides forced an early closure of that highway, which shuts down annually for the winter.

In Bellevue, part of Factoria Boulevard was covered by water early in the day, and in Mountlake Terrace, police worried cars in park-and-ride lots would soon be afloat.

In Seattle, where about 30 people from Seattle Public Utilities were out trying to clear roads and drains, spokeswoman Susan Stoltzfus said workers were behind the curve.

"It's incredible — the water just doesn't have the chance to be absorbed," she said. "How do you keep up?"

Among the hardest-hit areas in Seattle were the neighborhoods near Thornton Creek, which carries rainwater and runoff from Northgate to Lake Washington. The creek overflowed in the morning, spilling onto 35th Avenue Northeast in the Meadowbrook neighborhood near Nathan Hale High School.

Not everyone found the mess inconvenient.

As Peter Keller, a 15-year-old Nathan Hale freshman, sat in class and watched the rain fall outside, he couldn't stop thinking about Thornton Creek. As soon as the bell rang, he raced to the torrent of chocolate-milk-colored water. Keller tied a rope around his waist, handed the other end to a friend, and plunged into the middle of the creek, school clothes and all.

"This is the most fun you can have for free," said a drenched and grime-covered Keller.

Still, the torrent created hazards for many.

In Everett, two families were evacuated last night after heavy winds and steady rains caused two 90-foot trees to topple onto their apartments.

In Darrington, residents reported flooding caused by plugged culverts, while the nearby Sauk River swelled. The rising river swept up massive amounts of debris as it rushed down from the Cascades.

"It's almost a solid sea of logs. There's hardly any water showing," said resident Marv Kastning. About 60 or 80 homes near Gold Bar were under threat last night from the rising Wallace Creek, which was eating its way through a dike, said Mike McCallister, a coordinator for Snohomish County emergency management.

At the Neah Bay Coast Guard station, Petty Officer Roger Creech said most people in town are coping with the inconvenience of the road washout. A logging road was pressed into service as a detour.

"It's not really slowing us down any," Creech said. "Stores are open, and the residents have what they need."

Besides, those residents are a hardy lot. Neta Welever, who with her husband, Kenneth, runs the King Fisher bed and breakfast and charter fishing service from their home on Highway 112, was riding out the storm with no electricity but plenty of aplomb.

"I love it out here when the storms hit," she said. "I just lay back and take it easy."

Seattle Times staff reporters Diane Brooks, Leslie Fulbright, Emily Heffter, Ian Ith, Beth Kaiman, Lynn Thompson, Jon Savelle, Christopher Schwarzen, Jennifer Sullivan and Rachel Tuinstra, and The Associated Press, contributed to this report.