Though the rains came down on parts of the North Olympic Peninsula and the rivers rose, none of the waterways overflowed its banks, authorities said Tuesday.
But flood watches and warnings by the National Weather Service — particularly on the West End — were enough to take precautions.
Classes at the Quileute Tribal School in LaPush were canceled, and the Quileute Tribal Center was closed Tuesday after electricity on the Quileute reservation went out in some parts for about six hours on Monday night, said Bill Peach, the tribe’s executive director.
Although the Calawah River, the Bogachiel River and the Quillayute River all reached near flood stages after more than 5 inches of rain fell in 24 hours Monday and early Tuesday, none spilled over.
The Bogachiel River at about 10 p.m. Monday reached exactly 37 feet, its maximum flood stage, then receded, emergency managers said.
‘Very, very lucky’
All three rivers either cross or snake near state Highway 110, which is the only public road to LaPush.
“We got very, very lucky,” Peach said.
“When we were speaking with the Emergency Management folks at the county, the rivers were rising at about half a foot an hour.
“We were really concerned, so we just out of an abundance of caution just said that no one should go into work [on Tuesday] and to have the school close.
“It turns out it wasn’t necessary, but we just got lucky because for about two hours it stopped raining and the rivers started going down.”
Power was out in a small portion of LaPush on Monday from about 6 p.m. to midnight, and the whole village was without power between 11 p.m. and midnight.
Trees in power lines were likely the cause of the outages, said Jeff Beaman, spokesman for the Clallam County Public Utility District, which serves LaPush.
The outage was lengthened because a mudslide on the Hoko-Ozette Road had crews tied up and unable to get to the outage, he said.
The road was cleared and reopened on Monday afternoon said Undersheriff Ron Peregrin — who also oversees the Clallam County Emergency Management program.
Wind gusts
The National Weather Service recorded gusts up to about 55 mph on Monday about 7 p.m.
Winds were significantly brisker in higher elevations, and Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park earned its reputation again with a top gust of 117 mph Monday.
Elsewhere on the Peninsula, other rivers also reached levels close to flooding.
“Late on Monday, the Dungeness River was about 2 feet from flooding,” said Peregrin
“By Tuesday morning, it was about 6 inches from flooding — but by then it was falling.”
The National Weather Service Web site said the Dungeness River reached 6.78 feet at 2 a.m.; mild flooding begins at 7 feet.
Flood watches and warnings for the North Olympic Peninsula which had been expected to last through today were removed by the National Weather Service about midday Tuesday.
The Elwha River reached 19.6 feet — just 0.4 feet from flooding levels — about 4 a.m. Tuesday.
By late Tuesday, it had dropped to less than 15 feet.
Jeff Michalski, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said that although rain is predicted throughout the North Olympic Peninsula for the week, no flooding is predicted.
“Hydrologically significant rainfall is not forecast,” he said.
“There are no more warnings in effect for that area, and we’re not expecting any heavy rainfall this week.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
