Surprise Storm

Summary:

Clackamas County commissioners call state of emergency

A sudden one-two punch of snow and rain brought back memories of February's Great Flood, sending creeks, streams and rivers over their banks Tuesday and forcing dozens of families from their homes in Clackamas County.

Across the metropolitan area, thousands of residents struggled anew with power outages, submerged streets and freeways and slip-sliding hillsides. Caught unaware by the wintery storm, people hit the stores Tuesday buying winter necessities such as ice scrapers that they never dreamed they'd need before Thanksgiving.

But Clackamas County appeared hardest hit as the county Board of Commissioners declared a state of emergency there and strongly advised residents along the Clackamas River near Carver to evacuate their homes.

Rising pressure from snowmelt and rain on the Clackamas River forced Portland General Electric officials to spill water from the North Fork Dam in Estacada around 3:30 p.m., forcing the temporary evacuation downstream of the Carver Mobile Home Ranch.

Officials expect the river to rise 3 feet over flood stage but not to damage the park or other homes.

"We just re-did all this, every bit of it," said park resident Sandy Berns, 42, of her newly landscaped yard and brand-new doublewide. "I'm gonna stick it out to the end."

Despite warnings, most of the park's residents held their ground.

"This is getting old," said Trent Crane, 59, whose riverside trailer nearly flooded in February.

High water also flooded apartments near Milwaukie, cut off several Canby families from their homes and caused dozens of fender-benders and power failures all over the county. Mudslides, standing water and overfilled storm drains closed several roads, including Oregon 224 eight miles east of Estacada.

Residents of Alder Creek Lane in Canby were being evacuated from their homes by the Canby Fire Department as the swollen Molalla River prevented Alder Creek from draining. Floodwaters cut off 14 homes.

The Molalla River also threatened to flood the Riverside RV Park at 24310 Highway 99E. About a third of the 95 trailers normally parked there already had been removed by their owners by early afternoon, said David Van Doozer, 47, who works at the park.

Along Abernethy Creek, six miles upstream from Oregon City, residents were sandbagging their homes.

Patricia Ferrell-French found the creek's waters circling her home on South Creek Road. Her living room, which sustained $53,000 in damages during February's floods, was 1 inch above water.

"All this was new -- new carpets, new floors," said Ferrell-French, who campaigned for Clackamas County commission this fall in part because of the flood. She claimed the county's poor planning and selective enforcement of land-use laws increased the likelihood of flooding and erosion along the river.

"This is the third time we've flooded this year," she said.

- Lights out, floodwaters in

The storm knocked out power to about 100,000 PGE customers in the metro area, but power was restored to all but about 8,000 by Tuesday evening. About 4,000 Pacific Power customers lost their lights, but most were restored by Tuesday evening.

In Portland, the city's maintenance crew went on "full call out" where 114 street workers work 12-hour shifts to clear out drains systems clogged by debris and overwhelmed by water. Others were on standby to operate sanding trucks.

Many residents in Southeast Portland were rolling up carpets and moving belongings to higher ground as the floodwaters of Johnson Creek neared their homes. A stretch of Foster Road from Southeast 102nd Avenue to 162nd Avenue was most affected.

According to the National Weather Service, Johnson Creek rose to 16 feet late Tuesday afternoon. In February, the river crested at 14.2 feet. The creek's flood stage is 11 feet.

"That is an area that continues to provide grief and problems every year, and residents in that area are accustomed to flooding," said Mary Volm, spokewoman for the city's mainenance bureau.

She said numerous streets in the area were closed because of high water and open only to local traffic.

"It just happened very fast, the amount of rainfall over a short amount of time was a problem," Volm said.

Volm said the rains washed out a hillside along Germantown Road near the St. Johns Bridge, forcing the closure of the road. The hillside was shored up after February's floods but gave way with the week's rain. She said other hillsides around the city seemed to be under control.

In Washington County, the Oregon Department of Transportation rerouted traffic on Oregon 217 at Allen Boulevard as floodwaters from Fanno Creek submerged the freeway 4 feet deep.

"This is kind of a mini-Great Flood of '96 from what our folks are telling me," said Ron Scheele, public affairs coordinator for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

"It's deeper now than it was then," said Kelley Jennings, public information officer for the Tigard Police Department. "And it flooded quicker."

- Fallen leaves clog drains

This time, autumn leaves clogged storm drains and weeks of rain already had saturated the ground. Rain tapered off by midafternoon in Washington County, turning to snow for a short while.

County crews closed 17 roads by midafternoon and posted high-water warnings on another 55. By comparison, the county ran out of caution barricades during the height of February's storms, posting 140 places with high water.

Beaverton crews closed five major roads, while Tigard closed roads in four spots, mainly areas near the rushing Fanno Creek.

In Clark County and Vancouver, road crews darted from one minidisaster to the next, putting up "high water" signs and pumping water out of homes.

"The leaves have gotten in the drains, and that's what is presenting us with some flooding problems," said Vancouver's city manager, Vernon Stoner. "Staff is out working the leaves and getting them out" of drains.

Clark County recorded 3.32 inches of rain in a 12-hour period, from 8 p.m. Monday to 8 a.m. Tuesday, at the Washington State University Research Station in Hazel Dell.

The downpour overwhelmed leaf-clogged drainage systems, flooding yards, basements and intersections. Mud slides, standing water and downed trees closed severalThe Red Cross opened a shelter at Trinity Lutheran Church north of downtown Vancouver after roiling waters from Salmon Creek threatened the nearby Oak Tree Apartments.

Peterson Ditch, which drains into Burnt Bridge Creek, overflowed into a number of streets south of the Orchards area.

A total of 4,052 customers, most of them in the Hazel Dell and Lakeshore areas, lost power late Monday and early Tuesday, said Mick Shutt, a Clark Public Utilities spokesman. Power had been restored to most of the homes by Tuesday morning, he said.

Those who began cleaning up Tuesday soon ran into another obstacle. Customers were scrambling to hardware stores for pumps, wet vacuums, floor dryers and dehumidifiers.

The phone started ringing about 7:30 a.m. at Foster Rentals in Southeast Portland. By midday, all the store's 30 pumps had been rented. At Johnson Creek Rentals, 46 pumps were rented by 3 p.m.

Brent Hunsberger, Gloria Gonzales, John Higgins, Laura Trujillo, Dionne Peeples-Salah and Elisabeth Dunham of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.