The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Wahkiakum County residents experienced flooding and land slides in a wet, rainy weekend.

A wet weather system dumped 4.6 inches of rain in Cathlamet, 5.5 inches at the Town of Cathlamet water plant in the Elochoman Valley between 10 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.

The heavy rain sent county streams out of their banks; residents of the Grays River, Elochoman and Skamokawa Creek basins all saw water over their roads.

Some roads in the Grays River valley remained flooded and closed Monday.

Land slides also caused problems.

A 45-foot-wide chunk of earth slid away at the Roger Davis residence east of Cathlamet Sunday morning. The slide left a woodshed partially suspended over open air and also dumped a propane tank down the bluff.

Davis said he noticed the slide Sunday morning after he descended the bluff to check on his boat, which is moored at a dock below his house. He encountered an eight-foot high wall of mud, brush and tree trunks and wondered where it came from; he couldn't get close enough to see up the bluff.

When he returned to the top, however, the found the slide on the other side of his wood shed from his house.

"It must have happened just before," he said. "The tank was steaming like mad."

Davis doesn't believe his house is threatened. "It's on solid ground," he said.

He also has drains that direct water away from the house.

He is awaiting a contractor to come and work out a way to stabilize the area. He thinks it will involve driving some sheet piles and anchoring them away from the edge of the cliff. Also, the propane supplier is bringing a crane to lift the tank.

Davis, a retired contractor, has lived in the house since 1967 and he said he has never seen a slide like this.

"We just had a hell of a lot of rain," he said.

Meanwhile, a massive slide has blocked the upper end of Oatfield Road and is keeping a family from their residence.

County Public Works Director Pete Ringen said Tuesday the slide is about 300 feet long.

"It's nothing inexpensive to fix," he said. "In the long term, we might want to do a complete realignment, which is not cheap. In the short term, we can regrade the road and improve drainage."

He added that the slide has been a problem for years.

Commissioner Blair Brady suggested it might be cheaper for the county to buy out the family and let logging companies make a road.

"I can't answer that now," Ringen said.

Slides affected other county roads, Ringen said, including East Valley, Altoona-Pillar Rock and the upper Elochoman Valley roads.

"The road crew did an outstanding job," Ringen commented. "Lee Tischer and John Vik saved Schraum Road; a culvert was blocked, and they got it cleaned out before it washed out the road."