PORT ANGELES — Storms that lashed the North Olympic Peninsula earlier this month caused an estimated $6 million worth of damage to the Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest.
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, said the budget-writing committee he is expected to lead will fund the repairs to the Olympic Peninsula federal forests even if it means cutting costs in the Department of Interior’s Washington, D.C., offices.
“I hope we don’t have to do that,” Dicks said.
Two storms hit the Peninsula in short order — a flood of rain on Nov. 6 and a windstorm on Nov. 15.
Most park damage was due to the Nov. 6 rainstorm.
In Olympic National Park, damage is being estimated at almost $5 million and could rise, said park spokeswoman Barb Maynes.
“That includes what we know of so far on trail damages,” Maynes said Wednesday, noting that about 20 percent of trails had been surveyed by then.
Dicks said the Olympic National Forest had sustained about $1 million in damages.
Most of the damage in the park is washed out roads and almost all the roads have been surveyed, Maynes said.
Maynes didn’t know when the park roads and trails would be repaired and back to normal.
“It’s a little too early to say,” she said.
Some roads, such as the Hoh River road, sustained extensive damage.
Stranded since Nov. 6 up the Hoh River road, on the other side of a yawning 75-foot by 25-foot washout, are two cars belonging to park employees, as well as one rental car.
The trapped rental car has made national news since Thrifty Car Rental is charging Claude Hite of Tampa Bay, Fla., a daily rate on the Chrysler PT Cruiser until it is returned.
Neither Maynes nor a district ranger could say when the road will be open again.
“They are working on it,” said Bill Rohde, district ranger, on Saturday.
“They’re looking into whether to put temporary culverts in or a temporary bridge.”
Rohde said that staff had managed to restore minimal power to the Hoh Visitor Center by cranking up a generator.
“It’s just enough to drive a little electricity for the heaters,” he said.
