Snowmelt, heavy rain causes flooding in Ridgefield, La Center

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Though there wasn’t any “snowpocalypse” during the past work week, heavy rains on Feb. 11 and 12 led to flooding across North County.

The most major closure resulting from the rain is a portion of Northwest Pacific Highway at Northwest Wellman Road due to a washout. Clark County Public Works announced the closure the evening of Feb. 12, stating that water could be seen “rushing” through an opening in the asphalt. 

The department believes the closure will be long-term as the road will require “extensive rebuilding” before it can reopen. The assessment of what needs to be done itself could take weeks.

Other temporary closures in North County last week occurred on Northeast J A Moore Road in two places where the road crosses tributaries of the East Fork Lewis River southeast of La Center, Northeast Delfel Road between Northeast 189th Street and Northeast 199th Street along the west side of Interstate 5 north of the Clark County Fairgrounds and Northwest Allen Canyon Road from Northwest 324th Street to Northwest 51st Avenue west of La Center.

Ridgefield also saw likely historic flooding last week. 

Public works director Bryan Kast said preliminary numbers on rainfall in around the 5-inch range on Feb. 11 and 12 put the event as a potential “100-year storm,” or one with a 1 percent chance of happening any given year. 

The flooding closed streets at three places in Ridgefield: Rieman Road from Pioneer to North 5th Way, Dolan Road at South 5th Street and North Main Avenue at Gee Creek. Water was also over the roadway at South Royle Road and the 800 block of North 65th Avenue and Pioneer Street at Gee Creek.

Kast said that North Main at Gee Creek has been an occasional spot for flooding, though historically Dolan Road wasn’t. He said that flooding there was likely due to a backed up culvert, keeping it from draining until the morning of Feb. 14, where the other roads receded later in the day Feb. 12.



Kast mentioned there was a project slated for this summer to replace the undersized culvert on Main Avenue over Gee Creek as part of a pedestrian access project.

“It just so happens we got one of those big storms the winter before (the culvert) gets torn out of there,” Kast remarked. The replacement will be big enough for fish passage, he added.

Kast estimated the maximum depth during the flooding was at Rieman road, approaching 4 feet.  Abrams Park also flooded, enough to get into the garage of the park caretaker’s house though luckily Kast said no damage was done to the building proper.

Kast said city crews had anticipated the weather and prepared, paying specific attention to culverts that lacked the size to handle the volume of water.

“By and large I’m pretty happy with how things weathered the storm, and especially how the crew worked diligently to make sure that everything was going as smoothly as it could,” Kast remarked.

A little farther north, the storm managed to cause landslides along Kalama River Road in Kalama. According to Cowlitz County Public Works, debris blocking the road near milepost 10 was cleared as of 4:45 p.m. Feb. 13.