Consecutive days of relentless rain with subsequent flooding, landslides and sewage overflows signaled Thursday that a wet and wild winter has not exited the Portland-area stage.
The record-setting rain prompted a National Weather Service flood advisory through 7:45 p.m. Thursday for northwest Oregon and southwest Washington. Scattered slides blocked roads throughout the region, and Forest Grove officials feared a motorist may have been washed off a flooded rural road.
The 1.54 inches that fell Thursday in Portland was a record for Feb. 16, besting the 1.42 set in 1970. Combined with nearly an inch that fell Wednesday, Portland’s two-day total was 2.52.
Eugene had 1.69 inches of rain Thursday.
And it’s been a profoundly wet February for Portland: 8.04 inches have fallen through Thursday. The historical average total through Feb. 16 is 2.10 inches – in other words, less than what fell Wednesday and Thursday.
High water was expected to slowly recede starting Thursday night, the weather service said, and area law enforcement reported a number of roads closed in the region because of minor flooding in low-lying areas.
In Washington County, Forest Grove Fire & Rescue searched for an hour Thursday afternoon for a car that may have been washed off a flooded stretch of Southwest Fern Hill Road. Rescue crews began searching after another motorist reported the possibility the vehicle entered the water, said spokesman Division Chief Dave Nemeyer. The area will be searched again when waters recede.
The reporting motorist told an emergency dispatcher she saw a northbound vehicle pause at the water’s edge, Nemeyer said.
The motorist looked down “for a few seconds,” Nemeyer said. “When she looked up, there was no car coming through.”
Nemeyer said a car would not have a place to turn around on the two-lane rural road. He said the northbound vehicle would have had to maneuver around “Road Closed” signs to reach the water.
Nemeyer added that Forest Grove Fire & Rescue had made two rescues of flooded vehicles and their occupants at the same spot in the past two weeks.
“It’s a shortcut between Newberg and Hillsboro,” Nemeyer said. “A lot of people think they can do it. … We (make rescues) at that spot every single winter.”
The Oregon Department of Transportation dealt with a handful of slides on Portland-area state roads Thursday, but debris had been removed on all of them allowing traffic to proceed, spokesman Don Hamilton said.
In southwest Washington, however, a slide Thursday evening blocked the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 at milepost 23 near Woodland, about 30 miles north of Portland. Washington Department of Transportation officials did not have an estimate when the highway would reopen.
The heavy rain also took a toll on sewage systems. The Portland Bureau of Environmental Services reported its sewer system overflowed to the Willamette River at noon in several locations. People should avoid contact with the river for the next two days, the bureau recommended.
In Gladstone, raw sewage was discharged Thursday afternoon at the stormwater outfall at the south end of Portland Avenue at West Clackamas. Area residents should avoid contact with the Clackamas River for several days, city officials said.
Although rain is forecast through next week, a tapering should be underway starting Friday, the weather service said.
But until then, a tenth to a quarter inch more rain is possible Thursday night.
–Allan Brettman
abrettman@oregonian.com
503-294-5900
@allanbrettman
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