Yellow Pages
As flood waters and torrential rains began to taper off Friday, county, state and federal officials were able to begin assessing the extent of the damage.
State transportation officials said Friday that Wednesday’s major mudslide east of Concrete could cause residents of Rockport and Marblemount to be without power for two more weeks.
Emergency vehicles should be allowed to travel on Highway 20 east of Concrete by today, the Department of Transportation said.
Skagit County Commissioner Sharon Dillon said residents upriver from Concrete who may be without power for two weeks need to have generators.
Puget Sound Energy and the Transportation Department are discussing how to get crews up there to restore power sooner, PSE spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken said.
County commissioners toured the areas hardest hit by the heavy rains and flooding. Commissioners Ron Wesen and Ken Dahlstedt visited the Samish Basin. Dillon went to Concrete on Thursday and Friday.
“Their worry is the mudslides more than anything,” Dillon said of Concrete residents, some of whom were asked to evacuate their homes on Thursday due to the risk of additional mudslides.
A rain-saturated hillside had already fallen on top of one home in Concrete on Wednesday, destroying the house and temporarily trapping a woman inside.
The hillsides around Concrete were holding firm early Friday afternoon, Fire Chief Rich Philips said.
“The rain stopped so I think things are starting to get better, but it’s going to take a couple days to dry up at least,” Philips said.
Six snow avalanches are blocking Highway 20 between Newhalem and Diablo. The highway is closed at Newhalem, 13 miles west of the winter closure gate.
The highway east of Newhalem will remain closed at least through the weekend, until the avalanche danger subsides, Transportation Department spokesman Dustin Terpening said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been in Skagit County since Wednesday making emergency repairs. On Friday, their work was focused along South Skagit Highway.
The highway was damaged more by small creeks overflowing than by the Skagit River, corps flood engineer Eric Winters said.
The corps helped Skagit County Public Works remove debris from the highway and repair failed sections of road.
“There was so much water built up on the landward side of the road that water was moving underneath the road,” Winters said.
The corps wrapped up repair work on Friday as the Skagit receded below flood stage. The federal agency will conduct a quick damage assessment before leaving, Winters said.
More damage may have been done to failing levees at Lyman and Cockreham Island — two levees that have been slated for repairs, Winters said. In the minor November flood, 300 feet of the upstream end of the Cockreham levee had washed away, Winters said.
The Skagit River will need to recede more before it will be known whether either of those two levees has sustained further damage.
• Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .
