RIDGEFIELD — Instead of snow, some Clark County residents saw flooding Tuesday as heavy rain caused waterways to rise and storm drains to clog.
Public works crews throughout the county responded to flooded roadways until rain began to ease in the afternoon. A landslide Tuesday afternoon at Northwest Pacific Highway at Northwest Wellman Avenue near La Center created an opening in the asphalt that will close that part of the road for several weeks, according to Clark County Public Works. Drivers can still access Northwest Wellman Avenue from the south, but not the north, on the highway.
About 2 inches of rain fell in Battle Ground and more than 1.25 inches at Pearson Field in Vancouver late Monday and Tuesday morning, said Matthew Cullen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“That’s not a small amount,” Cullen said. “That’s quite a bit of rainfall.”
The storm stalled near northwest Clark County, Cullen said. As a result, those areas saw larger rain totals, especially at higher elevations.
Flooding was visible in areas throughout Ridgefield. Rainfall there likely neared 3 inches, Cullen said.
Bryan Kast, the city’s public works director, said water levels were the highest he’d seen in his six years with the city. Multiple roadways were temporarily closed as crews sandbagged and pumped water.
“A lot of running around today,” Kast said.
Near the parking lot at Abrams Park, Gee Creek rose about 4 feet, said James Barhitte, the park’s caretaker. That area of the creek is usually about 2 feet deep during the winter, he said.
“We were thinking, ‘Oh, well, we aren’t going to have anything,’ ” Barhitte said. “Well …”
Flooding threatened city-owned storage sheds a few hundred feet away, but Barhitte and other public works employees mitigated it. The garage in the caretaker’s home had some flooding but was the only affected structure.
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch and advisory around 4:30 a.m. for urban and small streams. A half-inch to 1.5 inches of rain had already fallen in the three hours before that, and gauges were measuring rates of a 0.10 to 0.30 inch of rain per hour.
Barhitte said he saw water begin to rise close to the edge of the creek bank around 2:30 a.m. He had already started laying down sandbags but knew he would need help a couple hours later when the creek overflowed.
“It was rising much faster than I could’ve been able to put sandbags down,” Barhitte said. “Usually I’ve been able to, you know, maintain it and take care of it.”
Within a couple of hours after the flooding began, a public works crew arrived and began helping Barhitte. In total, they placed more than 100 bags, Barhitte said.
Impacts from the flooding peaked late in the morning. By the afternoon, water had crept about 200 feet toward Barhitte’s residence, turning a large, grassy yard into a swamp. A large puddle and a temporary tributary also blocked a public walking trail.
As he surveyed the area Tuesday afternoon, Barhitte took a moment to poke fun at the situation.
“Hey, we’re here!” he yelled in jest at a helicopter flying overhead.
Crews will inspect affected roads for damage over the next week, Kast said. But overall, the feeling from those who fought the rising waters was that it could have been worse.
“We seemed to have weathered the storm fairly well,” Kast said.
Forecasters don’t expect additional large storms through Friday, Cullen said. While snow may mix with rain Wednesday morning in northern areas of Clark County, the rest of the week should be fairly standard, Cullen said.
“It looks like a fairly wet week in general,” Cullen said. “At this point, we don’t expect to see what we call high-impact weather.”
