Torrential Downpours & the Flooding Caused

For those of you who live here in Western Washington, you are all too aware of the storms and the damage it's caused. Just thought I'd reflect a bit, it has been crazy. I went to bed Sunday night and thought "wow, there's alot of rain coming down". Didn't realize how much it really was until BJ's school called around 1:00 Monday and said, most roads to his school are flooded out and we're asking parents to come pick up their kids as soon as they can.

Instant panic ensued. So of course, I got Brennen ready to go and headed off to pick him up. The main road to his school, 228th was closed just past Canyon Park so I had to go on quite the detour. Tried to get on 405 - HWY 522 and it was closed as well. Then it was through the Bothell Business Park (Northcreek), which had been evacuated earlier in the day, to try and go to the back of Woodinville to Kokanee. The wait began, it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get to B's school to pick him up. What is normally a 10 minute, 5 mile drive ... an hour & 40 minutes ... what the heck! At least it only took us an hour to get home ... much better right?

I didn't realize until I got home, just how bad Woodinville really suffered. 522 was closed for 2 days, something I've never ever encountered in all my 31 years in the area. On the I-5 corridor between Seattle & Portland it's even worse, Centralia / Chehalis are completely decimated. I-5 has been closed since Monday and will be closed at least through Friday. Seeing as how I work at UPS, and all my trailers come through the I-5 corridor, you can only imagine the trouble we're having at work. I'm sure many, many other businesses are feeling the pinch as well. What a crazy week of weather.

Check out these pics of some of the flooding:

This is right off of the 522 exit on the left, right across from DQ & the 76 station.

Can you believe this is I-5 in Chehalis about 1/2 way between Seattle & Portland?
That's right, one of the main arteries of the west coast, with all the water on it!