A HUGE SECTION of Northeast 316th Street, the private road that runs in and out of La Center’s Timber Creek Estates housing development, washed into Mason Creek on Dec. 8. Six households on ‘the other side’ of the creek are now cut off from the county.
MARK GUZ, A network technician with CenturyLink, works to restore telephone service to six families in the Timber Creek Estates housing development near La Center on Tues., Dec. 15.
A ROAD CLOSED sign greets visitors driving through the Timber Creek Estates housing development, located on Northeast 316th Street, about five miles southeast of La Center’s city center. On Dec. 8, a storm washed away the section of Northeast 316th Street that crosses Mason Creek, leaving six families with no way in or out of their neighborhood.
LA CENTER – As Clark County residents recovered last week from a storm system that sent a tornado into Battle Ground and caused flooding and landslides throughout the area, six households in La Center’s Timber Creek Estates subdivision were coping with an even trickier problem.
The day-to-day lives of the families were impacted when a huge section of the only road leading in and out of their development washed away into nearby Mason Creek, stranding them in their neighborhood and effectively cutting them off from the rest of the county.
Jeff Locke, who lives in the Timber Creek Estates development off Northeast 316th Street, about five miles southeast of La Center’s city center, says he was on a business trip in California when the storm hit. Locke’s wife, Crystal, called him on Dec. 8, to tell him that the power and water had gone out.
“It was later in the evening, and no one really knew what was going on,” Locke says. “They just knew that the power and water were out.”
The next morning, on Dec. 9, when Crystal Locke started her daily commute to work, she realized that a huge chunk of Northeast 316th Street, the private road leading into the Timber Creek Estates housing development, was missing. In its place was a 60-foot hole over a flooded, rushing Mason Creek.
“She called me and said, ‘We have an issue,’” Locke says. “I took the earliest flight home.”
As it happened, the place where the road had washed into Mason Creek was in the middle of the development, which left half of the families on one side of the creek, totally cut-off. Because he had been in California, with his car at the airport, Locke was the only person from the cut-off side of the development with a vehicle on the “good side” of the creek.
“There was no easy way to walk out,” Locke says. “Mason Creek surrounds us on three sides and there are woods at the top.”
For the first few days, the neighbors walked the half-mile through the woods to get to the spot where Locke had parked his vehicle. They could make grocery and supply runs that way, but had to walk the items back through the woods. Luckily, service providers had worked quickly to restore temporary power and water services to the households, running their lines across a giant log that bridged Mason Creek.
One week later, the neighbors had worked to create a temporary footbridge across the creek, making their supply runs even easier. Now, instead of walking through the woods to reach vehicles on the “good side” of the development, they could walk down a paved road and cross the creek on the temporary, “use at your own risk” footbridge.
The solution is good for the neighborhood’s immediate needs, but the residents are facing an even greater battle now – because Northeast 316th Street is private, owned and maintained by the development, the families are responsible for fixing the washed-out road.
“It is going to be quite expensive, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a solution in place,” Locke says. “We have a homeowners’ fund to cover the costs of maintaining a rural road, but we never foresaw this type of expense.”
Although Locke and his wife are relatively new to the neighborhood – they moved there three years ago – most Timber Creek Estates’ residents have lived in the housing development, which winds through the rural, heavily treed land located about five miles southeast of La Center’s downtown, for more than 15 years. The stranded families have been looking out for each other, Locke says, taking turns cooking meals and making sure that their neighbor who recently had heart surgery is doing OK and is able to get her medications.
Despite the fact that the families have La Center addresses, Locke says the city hasn’t been willing to help them with the washed-out road.
“The city of La Center has said they can’t do anything because the road is private,” Locke says. “But the good thing is that we are getting support from the county and Clark Conservation District.”
The grant-funded Clark Conservation District helps rural landowners find the technical and financial resources they need in situations like this one.
“They donated their engineer, who came down and looked at the road yesterday,” Locke said on Tues., Dec. 15.
Locke says the county’s public works department has told the stranded homeowners that they’ll work to waive fees and expedite the road-repair process.
“Mason Creek is a protected salmon habitat, so usually they wouldn’t let us touch it for another six months, but they’ve been willing to help expedite that,” Locke says.
The homeowners have started a GoFundMe site to help raise money for the road repair, and people donated nearly $3,000 within the first three days.
“We’re feeling pretty positive right now,” Locke says. “We’ve had so much public support, and people have donated materials for the new [foot] bridge. We know that we have a lot of work to do with the road and there’s always a concern about the electricity and the water, since the lines aren’t sunk into the ground … but it does keep your heart kind of warm to see the support and the public’s reaction.”
To read more about the stranded families, see updates on their progress or donate to their road fund, visit https://www.gofundme.com/92emmu2k.
