A Pacific County sheriff’s deputy and others cleared debris blocking State Route 6 in the early hours of Dec. 18, when an intense wind and rainstorm temporarily blocked all routes in and out of Pacific County.

LONG BEACH PENINSULA — While it won’t be a white Christmas in Pacific County, chances are it will be wet enough to make Santa’s reindeer wish they had raincoats.

A series of storms dumped 7 inches of rain at the Pioneer Road weather station between Dec. 13-19, with a one-day deluge of 3.49 inches on Tuesday, Dec. 17. The remaining days of December are predicted to be more of the same, with at least 5 inches more over the county’s lower elevations and up to 10 inches in the Willapa Hills.

So much water — a foot of rain on a single acre of land weighs more than 2.7 million pounds — can be expected to cause landslides in coming days and weeks. A winter 2021 landslide on State Route 401 between Knappton and Naselle took two years to repair and cost more than $2 million.

Pull Quote

‘This needs to be a reminder to people that in our area, preparedness is vital.’

Scott McDougall, Pacific County Emergency Management Agency director

Coupled with a king tide, occasionally intense rainfall the week before Christmas caused minor street flooding on the Long Beach Peninsula, in Bay Center, South Bend-Raymond, and along State Route 105 toward Tokeland.

Winds were intense between Dec. 17-18. The storm hit in the late afternoon and battered parts of the county for nearly 12 straight hours. At one point, all major roads leading into the county were affected by downed trees, debris or water over the roadway.

The Astoria Megler Bridge recorded a max wind gust of 80 mph around 1 a.m. and another gust just below 80 mph at around 2 a.m. on Dec. 18. At Cape Disappointment, a sustained wind speed of 55 mph — the highway speed limit — pounded away for a full hour in the middle of the night, with gusts topping out at around 70 mph.

Cooperative effort

During the Dec. 17-18 storm, agencies including the Pacific County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO), Pacific County PUD, Washington State Patrol, Pacific County Public Works Department and Washington State Department of Transportation were overrun with calls about downed power lines, trees and debris.

At 11:40 p.m. on Dec. 17, a tree went across the roadway between milepost 6 and 7 on SR 105, blocking both lanes. PCSO Deputy Lucas Marthaller responded to the call.

Shoalwater Bay Police Department Officer Sarah Boggs was headed home and got stuck because of a tree. An Observer correspondent responded to the scene to cover the incident and used a chainsaw to clear the roadway of the tree, which was trapping travelers in a dangerous area.

The Observer writer cut the tree while Marthaller used a high-powered flashlight to watch for additional falling trees. Boggs helped pull pieces of the tree off the roadway.

The roadway was cleared in minutes, and by the time everyone got moving another tree had been reported down at State Route 6, about a quarter mile from Gailey’s Grocery.

Additional trees were reported down at milepost 44 on U.S. 101 near Bruceport.

Marthaller and the Observer writer responded to the call on State Route 6 and cleared the roadway within about 10 minutes. The roadway remained closed for roughly another 30 minutes while a PUD worker responded to remove a line from the road, which turned out to be cable or internet.

According to travelers stuck on US. 101, they were stuck for more than 90 minutes waiting for help until a group of men rolled up in a truck. The men pulled out some chainsaws and cut up the tree, then used their lifted truck to pull it out of the road.

Praise and preparedness

Chief Civil Sheriff’s Deputy Hollie Billeci, the agency’s public information officer, praised the hard work of deputies and others who were cleaning up debris from the storm and restoring power.

“I’m grateful that there were no deaths or major injuries due to all of the trees falling,” Billeci said. “Good job to DPW and everyone else that helped clear our roads, the PUD for ensuring short power outages, and PCEMA for keeping us informed.”

Pacific County Emergency Management Agency Director Scott McDougall believes this storm is another reminder of the wild weather of the Pacific Northwest and is a lesson to be learned.

“We have had a couple of fairly routine storms that have caused a non-routine amount of damage,” McDougall said. “This needs to be a reminder to people that in our area, preparedness is vital.”