EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s a link to a detour map for Olympic Discovery Trail bikers: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/628596354.
Flooding on the North Olympic Peninsula was reduced Sunday as rivers pulled back into their banks, and officials are sorting out the damage left behind by raging waters from the heavy rains that washed over the region.
On Sunday, the damaged bridge over the Dungeness River at Railroad Bridge Park still stood, a Brinnon neighborhood flooded by the Duckabush River was beginning to return to normal, a section of the Olympic Hot Springs Road in Olympic National Park was still under water and Dosewallips State Park was closed due to flooding.
While more rain is in the forecast through Tuesday, it isn’t expected to be enough to cause more flooding, said Johnny Burg, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Seattle.
However, a National Weather Service special weather statement warned of possible mudslides on steep hillsides saturated by rains.
Dungeness bridge
Six pilings and parts of a truss section of the 100-year-old bridge over the Dungeness — washed away by storm waters Friday — were being secured Sunday to ensure the creosote-treated timbers were not going to float downstream and cause further damage, said Powell Jones, director of the Dungeness River Audubon Center, adjacent to the bridge.
Some of the timbers were still partially attached to the bridge, and others were disconnected and threatened to be washed away, Jones said.
Secured in concrete
The iconic overhead truss railroad bridge itself is anchored in concrete at both ends and is not considered at risk, he said.
The bridge, located on Jamestown S’Klallam tribal property, forms the centerpiece of Railroad Bridge Park and is the only Dungeness river crossing for the Olympic Discovery Trail.
Tribal officials have said the bridge is not repairable in the short term, and they are working with the State Department of Transportation to access emergency money to repair and open the bridge as soon as possible.
Dungeness River Bridge is expected to be closed for more than two months, tribal officials have said.
Trail users may detour around the Dungeness bridge area by using the nearby U.S. Highway 101 or Old Olympic Highway bridges.
Elwha River
Olympic Hot Springs Road, in the Olympic National Park southwest of Port Angeles, remained closed Sunday with water on the road, said Park Ranger Greg Marsh.
The road was flooded near the Elwha Campground in an area that is prone to flooding in big rain events, Marsh said.
Jefferson County
Damage to homes and other properties on the Dosewallips and Duckabush rivers was minimal and limited to fences, outbuildings and some erosion, while two nearby mudslides have been cleared, Bob Hamlin, director of Jefferson County Emergency Management Department said Sunday.
“It’s not as bad as the December storm,” Hamlin said.
Both the Dosewallips and the Duckabush rivers flood regularly, and many of the residents in the area have either raised their homes on floodwater-resistant pilings or have sold their properties and the houses have been razed to permanently reduce the impact of flooding on those rivers, he said.
Hamlin said the Duckabush River in particular is a challenging river for predicting floods and for warning residents.
“It’s rate of rise is extremely fast. You need to really watch it. There is not a lot of warning,” he said.
The Duckabush River, fed by more than 7 inches of rain in the Olympic Mountains on Friday, flooded areas of Kelly, Shorewood and Duckabush roads near Brinnon on Friday — an area still recovering from a similar flood in December.
Friday’s flood affected different areas than the December flood, Hamlin said.
In December, the floods hit the Dosewallips harder, and this time it was the Duckabush River that threatened homes, he said.
At its highest, the Duckabush River rose to a height of 6.37 feet and a flow rate of 4,970 cubic feet per second at 12:30 p.m. Friday, and by Sunday, it had fallen to 3.70 feet and 1,580 cubic feet per second, according to the U.S. Geological Survey website.
The Duckabush does not have an official established flood stage.
On Sunday, Dosewallips State Park near Brinnon was temporarily closed due to damage caused by the Dosewallips River flooding the day-use area and large portions of the campground, according to the Washington State Parks website.
The Dosewallips does not have an official river gage.
* * * OUR EARLIER REPORT ON THE DUNGENESS RIVER BRIDGE DAMAGE * * *
By Peninsula Daily News staff
SEQUIM — The Dungeness River Bridge is expected to be closed for weeks, if not months, after flood-strength waters knocked loose several support pilings, threatening collapse of the span’s western walkway.
The bridge, on Jamestown S’Klallam tribal property and the centerpiece of Railroad Bridge Park, will be repaired “within the next couple of months,” tribal Chairman Ron Allen said Saturday.
Concern is focused not on the iconic steel railroad bridge itself across the Dungeness — it is anchored in concrete at both ends — but on the bridge’s old trestle portion, which continues across the west side of the river.
“We’re gonna take a very active leadership on repairing it,” Allen said.
“We’ve already alerted [state Department of] Transportation folks and are trying to access emergency money to make it available as soon as possible.
“We’re definitely moving as fast as we can.”
Allen said tribal Chief Operating Officer Annette Nesse and representatives of the tribe’s excavation company were at the site Saturday morning, as well as Clallam County Engineer Ross Tyler.
“This is not repairable in the short term,” Tyler said.
Detour for trail users
Railroad Bridge Park is also home to the Dungeness River Audubon Center.
Powell Jones, director of the center, said that as of Friday night, six bridge piles had been torn away by debris and the rushing river.
The walking and bike paths through the park and over the bridge are part of the Olympic Discovery Trail.
The trail will eventually run from Port Townsend to the Pacific Coast, but for now, most of it is about 60 miles in and around Port Angeles and Sequim.
Walkers, horse riders and bikers using the trail will now need to detour around the Dungeness bridge area by using the nearby U.S. Highway 101 and Old Olympic Highway bridges, Powell said.
“You’re talking about a mile of trail that’s been cut off,” he said.
Repairs cannot begin until the end of the rainy season, Allen said.
Permitting also is complicated because the river is home to endangered fish species, Tyler said.
The Dungeness River’s chinook and summer chum salmon, steelhead and bull trout are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, according to the state Department of Ecology.
The old railroad trestle, now a planked walkway, is held up by wooden pilings, some rising 20 feet from the ground.
The Dungeness River, normally a placid and shallow waterway, swelled to a torrent early Friday from heavy rains that gorged the waterway, which overflowed its banks in many areas, reaching about a foot below its official flood stage.
Trees undermined by the flooding also have crashed down on the trestle.
‘Hazardous situation’
Repair crews were called in to assess the situation, and late Friday, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office closed the entire bridge and its eastern and western approaches and in a news release warned of “a very hazardous situation”:
“The bridge at Railroad Bridge Park has been damaged due to high water in the Dungeness River and trees falling on it to the point where it is suspected that collapse [of the western trestle portion] is possible if not probable.
“Authorities have closed the [Olympic] Discovery Trail at either side of the bridge and are warning citizens to stay out of the area.
“Emergency personnel are on scene and monitoring the situation.”
