BRINNON — A flood that made national news earlier this month has left few signs in this small south county community.
“Things are pretty much back to normal,” Curtis Lightner, a lieutenant with the Brinnon Fire Department, said last week.
“Some of streets may need to be shored up, but things are back where they should be.”
Bob Hamlin, director of the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management, called the Duckabush River floods this month “a pretty minor event,” especially in comparison to the floods of that river and the Dosewallips River in the Brinnon area in early December.
“The floodwaters came up fast, left a lot of gravel and blew a few fences around,” Hamlin said.
“A few people were inconvenienced, and there was some damage to cars, but no one was out of their homes for very long.”
The Duckabush River, fueled by at least 7 inches of rain in a 24-hour period in the Olympic Mountains, spilled over its banks in the areas of Kelly, Shorewood and Duckabush roads Feb. 6, flooding the same area that had been hard-hit by high water in December.
Brinnon firefighters, aided by swift water rescue teams from Clallam County and state Fish and Wildlife, helped those who wanted to leave their threatened homes.
Swift water teams rescued three people from a pickup truck that was swept away by the river near a mudslide on Duckabush Road.
No one was hurt and those who evacuated returned to their homes within hours, according to authorities.
Hamlin doesn’t want to downplay the danger but said there was a some media overreaction.
After the water came up overnight, a Seattle news agency helicopter broadcast flood pictures and tweeted that several homes were severely damaged by mudslides.
This turned out to be incorrect, he said.
“This was over the top, and we started getting calls from media all over the country,” he said.
“A lot of our energy was devoted to the media rather than the issue at hand, which was handled pretty well.”
It was the second major flooding of the Duckabush River this season, after a heavy rainstorm pounded the area in December.
“It came up a lot faster this time, but it wasn’t as deep,” said Bob Shadbolt, who lives on Kelly Road between the Duckabush River and Pierce Creek.
“One of my neighbors had to replace a carpet after the last flood, which he didn’t have to do again because the water didn’t come up as high,” he said.
Shadbolt measured the water level on a shed door across from his property and judged that it was about a foot lower than the high levels he recorded in a 2007 flood and this December.
Lightner said the fire department canvassed all the homes in the flood plain and only one household, a family of five, requested assistance in evacuation.
Alyssa Brown, 16, was part of the family whose parents and younger siblings were rescued.
She said the water level reached almost to the top step leading into the house, although the water did not enter the house as it did in December.
“I wasn’t really scared because this isn’t the first time it happened,” she said.
“But I did wish that the rain would stop.”
According to Karen Sickel, who lives on an area of Duckabush Road that was not flooded, Jefferson County crews responded quickly when she reported a hazard.
“I was worried about one section of the road where someone could have easily driven off of the edge if they came in at night and hydroplaned.
“I called the county and they came right out and put up warning flashers,” she said.
Sickel said she was pleased that newly elected County Commissioner Kathleen Kler visited the site “because it has never happened that a commissioner has shown that level of interest.”
Public Works Director Monte Reinders said his department’s costs were not substantial and only consisted of some overtime hours.
County Administrator Philip Morley said last week that he had not yet received a damage estimate from either the county Department of Emergency Management or Public Works Department, but he did not think the cost would be large enough to qualify for emergency assistance.
Hamlin said that additional costs for emergency response were minimal and were mostly handled as part of regular shift work, but the cumulative effect of all the recent storms puts the county in a serious situation.
“This whole series of storms beginning in December could cost the county a total of $1 million and we don’t know where that will come from,” he said.
Another situation where the Hoh River is encroaching on Oil City Road will probably qualify for $150,000 in assistance, he said.
Several television camera crews covered the flood, with the story leading the NBC Nightly News on Feb. 7.
A photo by Peninsula Daily News photographer Keith Thorpe was included in that broadcast.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
