Boulders, trees and dirt slid onto Interstate 5 north of Woodland on Wednesday at about 3 p.m., blocking traffic and stranding travelers. (NATALIE BEHRING/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
Highway officials reopened a portion of northbound Interstate 5 on Thursday evening, more than a day after a landslide brought the flow of goods and people to a halt.
The Washington State Department of Transportation opened a single northbound lane at about 6 p.m. and a second lane was opened about three hours later, providing relief for travelers and truck drivers. A concrete barrier separated drivers from crews who continued to work through the night clearing debris from the hill.
Officials say they hope to have all northbound lanes open by Sunday evening.
“There’s still more work to do before traffic returns to normal, but WSDOT and contractor crews are making great progress under tough conditions,” said Kris Strickler, the agency’s administrator for Southwest Washington.
The giant boulders, trees and mud that tumbled into freeway lanes about 3 p.m. Wednesday barred the primary access route toward Seattle, creating miles-long traffic jams and leaving motorists and truck drivers little choice but to wait. One alternate route, U.S. Highway 30 in Oregon, faced massive traffic congestion — when it wasn’t temporarily blocked by a landslide on Wednesday and a gas leak Thursday.
Community rallies
Faced with unexpected guests for a potentially indefinite stay, Woodland community members executed an emergency response like seasoned veterans. The high school was quickly converted into a shelter, a place where people could escape the cold and use the restrooms. The library and churches were opened.
Blankets, pillows, hot coffee from Starbucks, snacks from Wal-Mart, meals from McDonald’s, stacks of pizza, homemade macaroni, toothbrushes, toiletries and games were provided for those unexpectedly waylaid.
“It’s a refreshing look at humanity. … How we treat each other in the face of an emergency,” said John Shoup, the principal at Woodland High School.
While geotechnical crews evaluated the stability of the hillside and crews worked to clear debris from the roadway, hundreds of lives were put on hold. But overall, spirits remained high.
Louise Miller and her traveling companion, Ken Faulkner, spent the night in their fifth-wheel in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Woodland.
It wasn’t so bad, Miller said. Think about what the pioneers had to go through, she said.
Despite the sense of perspective, when she heard one of the northbound lanes was scheduled to reopen Thursday evening, she was pleased.
“Oh, hot dog,” said Miller, 73. “I’m excited.”
Lyn Thomas and her husband, David, were making their way from Arizona back to Vancouver, B.C., when the landslide forced them to sleep in their car in the McDonald’s parking lot.
“We’re on an adventure,” Lyn Thomas said, while eating a chocolate bar in Woodland High School on Thursday afternoon.
“What a great community,” David Thomas said.
Down the school hallway, a handful of strangers worked on a Marvel comic puzzle together.
“Oh, I’m Kathy,” one woman said to another sitting next to her, after realizing they had been chatting without first making an introduction.
“People just come and go,” Kathy Thompson said. “Everyone has been nice.”
But for some, the delay caused more hardship. Jay Clark, a professional driver, was hauling food from Arizona to Fife in his tractor-trailer.
Clark is used to sleeping in his truck. But spending more than a day in the Wal-Mart parking lot, not moving, was difficult.
“I’m not making money if I’m not moving,” he said.
Worst, and best
No injuries were reported from the landslide, but the dark and rainy conditions Wednesday night made it impossible to evaluate the stability of the slope and whether it’d be safe to begin clearing debris.
Additionally, officials were unable to establish an official detour to get around the landslide. Railroad tracks in the median between the northbound and southbound lanes made it impossible to shift traffic to the unaffected southbound side of the freeway.
“(It’s) one of the worst places to have a closure,” Washington State Department of Transportation spokesman Bart Treece said while at the scene Thursday. There was a similar slide not far from Woodland nearly two decades ago.
Gov. Jay Inslee visited the site to survey the damage on Thursday morning.
“The message to folks out there is safety has got to be No. 1,” Inslee said. “We’ve still got rain, we still have flooding. Be safe … take care of your neighbors, take care of yourself — that has to be priority No. 1.”
Inslee said he’s a “little tired” of having to make emergency declarations. The governor declared a state of emergency on Wednesday after hard rains swept through Western Washington the past few days, causing roadways to wash away and motorists to get stuck in deep water.
“We’ve had one of the worst fire seasons ever, floods, drought … when these things happen, it brings out the best in Washingtonians. You see neighbors helping neighbors,” he said.
Emily Gillespie and Jessica Prokop contributed to this report.
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