Yellow Pages
CONCRETE — After flooding and mudslides last week made a number of upriver roads inaccessible, some residents are beginning to ask town officials when help will come.
A high volume of calls from residents who were evacuated and still unable to return to their homes moved Concrete Mayor Judd Wilson to schedule a public meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21, at the Concrete Senior Center.
Officials from the Mount Baker Red Cross, the Skagit County Department of Emergency Services and town engineer Jim Hobbs from Reichardt & Ebe Engineering will be on hand to answer questions, town clerk-treasurer Andrea Fichter said Friday.
“We figured this would be the best way to get everybody in one place at one time,” she said.
Fichter said did not know the exact number of evacuees still inconvenienced by last week’s storm. Shannon O’Leary, emergency services director for the Mount Baker Red Cross, said most area evacuees are now staying with friends and family.
Red Cross had set up a temporary shelter at St. Catherine Catholic Mission on Limestone Street last week, but that shelter was closed Friday morning because residents no longer required its services, O’Leary said.
The shelter will remain stocked with supplies for residents who may still need them during the next few days, she said.
Some east county roads remained impassible Friday afternoon.
Cliff Butler, Skagit County manager of road operations, said Conrad Road, which parallels Highway 20 east of Rockport, and Christian Camp Road, which is 15 miles south of Rockport, remain closed due to mudslides.
Butler said no residents remain impacted by either closure.
Road crews have also opened up Cascade River Road east of Marblemount and Pipeline Road in Lyman. Sullivan Road near Bayview Edison Road was the only western Skagit County road still closed as of Friday.
“During the next week or so, we’ll be just trying to make the roads safe again,” Butler said. “None of the major repairs will happen. But (in the coming weeks) we’ll go back and make the larger repairs.”
Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman MacKenzie McDowell said power had also been restored to all customers in the Concrete area, as well as the rest of eastern Skagit County.
In Concrete, a geologist from GeoEngineers, Inc. in Bellingham has been inspecting affected sites and relaying information to town officials. Information from the engineer will likely be available at the town public meeting, officials said.
The town issued a mandatory evacuation notice Jan. 10 for residents living in the Crofoot, Mill Addition and east Concrete areas.
