by Tahlia Ganser
Access on Highway 20 west of Hamilton was denied to vehicles Wednesday afternoon due to swollen creeks. This photo is at Hamilton Cemetery Road and Hwy. 20 looking south near Hamilton.
LYMAN — As the creeks of Skagit County burst at their rims with overwhelming rain and snow melt Wednesday, residents and visitors east of Lyman tried to find an escape before all roads connecting them to the outside world were shut off by flowing water. Others hunkered down to wait out the flooding.
By noon, some roads began to give way to the water, chunks breaking off from the force of the flow.
In a last-ditch effort to catch a plane in Seattle, an engaged couple drove the back roads near Lyman trying to find a way west.
One dead-end after the other, Matt Clarke and Amber Burk of California were turned around as they came to water rushing over the road in front of them.
Eventually, they wound their way to the last major water crossing between them and their flight on the Lyman Hamilton Highway.
“It looked like a river was coming up over the road,” Clarke said. “Part of the road had actually washed away. There were actual chunks missing ... we just held each others’ hand as we drove through.”
Others, including an older man in a truck, chose to turn around, Clarke said. Some, like Clarke and Burk, dared the crossing.
But the State Patrol advises against driving on any water crossing a road in such cases.
“If there is water running over the road, you don’t know what’s under that water,” said Trooper Keith Leary. “We absolutely don’t want any people driving across water on the road.”
As for the couple, they eventually made it to Burlington on time to catch their shuttle. They said they also crossed a mudslide near Lyman, but were guided through it by road crews.
“The worst part was definitely forging that river that was going across the road,” Clarke said. “It was definitely an adventure.”
Highway 20 was completely covered by the bulging Davis Slough just east of Hamilton. Tree trunks and branch debris rested on the road as the brown milky water rushed over and down the highway.
Nearby resident Doug Smith, who lives on Healy Road said his horses were standing in several inches of water when he checked on them in his barn.
Smith has lived at that location for 20 years and has experienced a number of floods. But this one, he said, is different.
“It caught me off guard,” Smith said.
He said floods in the past have come from the Skagit River rather than overflowing creeks.
“Every flood is different. It never acts the same,” he said.
This flood though, is not as bad as one in the the mid-1990s that filled his barn with 18 inches of water.
He said his horses, which he moved out of the flooded barn into a nearby field Wednesday, were coping wellk.
“They seem to handle this kind of stuff better than what you’d think,” he said.
Another upriver resident, Frankye Dalrym, was out driving around to watch the flooding.
Dalrym said she wasn’t worried about the water or the road closures.
“We’ve lived here all our lives, so we’re used to it,” she said.
Further down in Sedro-Woolley, two neighbors gathered sandbags from the Sedro-Woolley Fire Department to protect their property on Hoehn Road, just east of the city.
“I’ve got water in my barn where I’ve never had it before,” said one of the ranchers, Scott Storie. “We’re watching (the Skagit River) rise ... It’s getting a little bit dicey.”
• Tahlia Ganser can be reached at 360-416-2148 or at .
