Flooding, wind damage batter western Chelan County, State of Emergency declared

CHELAN COUNTY — Residents across western Chelan County awoke Thursday morning to major flooding, downed trees, boulder obstructions and power outages due to heavy winds and significant rainfall.

“I felt like I was in The Wizard of Oz last night,” said Ski Hill Drive resident Hayden Peck.

Peck said she watched her neighbor’s canvas carport get lifted by the wind like a giant sail, traveling directly towards her house on Wednesday afternoon.

“We were worried it was going to come straight through our house and right through the window,” said Peck. Hours later, their house was struck with a fallen tree.

According to Chelan County officials, the upper valley was hit hardest with wind and flooding over Wednesday night. Throughout Leavenworth, downed trees landed on houses, cars, powerlines and roadways, taking out cell service and power. Cascade School District cancelled all school-related activities Wednesday afternoon, and closed entirely Thursday. City hall, Dan’s Food Market, and downtown businesses were also closed due to the power outage.

Roads such as East Leavenworth, North Road, White River Road and Sleepy Hollow Bridge were closed due to major flooding. US-2 remained closed from Coles Corner through Tumwater Canyon.

The Wenatchee River rose significantly, surpassing the estimated 15.5 feet peak by Thursday morning. By the afternoon, the river gauge reached approximately 16.8 feet, with water flowing at about 37,300 cubic feet per second (cfs).

According to Chelan County Emergency Management Sergeant Jason Reinfeld, local fire districts evacuated residents of heavily flooded areas by boat in parts of Leavenworth, Plain and Lake Wenatchee.

When Lake Wenatchee resident Taylor Thompson returned to his second story apartment in the Village Thursday morning, it was six feet under water.

“Trucks were buried up to their hoods almost with water. My friend's trailer is probably destroyed, and a lot of people there are probably facing really bad living situations for this upcoming winter. So it's definitely a little scary,” said Thompson.

Chelan County officials reported some damage in Entiat, such as small slides and fallen boulders. Cashmere saw high water, but Sergeant Reinfeld said levees were holding. In Stehekin, conditions were much worse.

“Stehekin had some pretty bad slides, really significant slides, that were from the burn scars from the Pioneer fire. So they got a lot of water on the roadways, a lot of places are covered completely with debris and mud. A lot of the roads were pretty impassable up there,” said Sergeant Reinfeld.

Sergeant Reinfeld told Ward Media the town had equipment moving debris from roads, but Emergency Management was on its way to bring potable water, as the water facility was destroyed by a slide.

According to FitzSimmons, the county won’t know the full extent of damage throughout the county until water recedes; as it does, roads will remain closed until the county can assess their conditions. FitzSimmons added that Public Works had cleared as many trees from the road as it could Thursday, but its cleanup work was limited due to trees being tangled in downed power lines.

“We can't touch those until the PUD comes in and fixes that, then we'll be able to finish our cleanup work on the downed trees. But the crews have cleaned up everything that they can at this point,” said FitzSimmons.

Chelan County Board of County Commissioners chairman Shon Smith declared a state of emergency Wednesday morning, which will be signed as a formal resolution by the board on Dec. 15. The declaration will allow the commissioners to use local resources without needing to go through typical government bidding processes; it will also serve as a prerequisite for state and federal recovery assistance funding.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media