County digs out

Torrential rain on top of significant snowfall a week earlier led to flooding and collapsed structures in northern portions of Mason County last week.

Rain gauges at Sanderson Field in Shelton recorded 5.54 inches of rain in a 48-hour period that ended at 3:53 a.m. Friday.

On the Tahuya Peninsula, the swollen Tahuya River and other streams and tributaries inundated roads, land and homes. Northshore Road was closed briefly.

"North Mason experienced a significant rainfall event Thursday and Friday in which over 3 inches of rain was dumped on the region," North Mason Regional Fire Authority Chief Beau Bakken told the Journal in a Monday email. "The flooding event was complicated by the fact that it was met with a very high tide in the Hood Canal at 9 a.m. Friday morning which pushed canal water up and over bulkheads and into homes and yards and hindered the natural flows of creeks and rivers."

Bakken wrote that in NMRFA's damage assessment, it counted 35 homes that were affected to varying degrees by flooding.

A section of Northshore Road in the 16000 block was closed for about four hours due to debris washing over the road. Bakken wrote that no other closures were reported.

"Our crews helped to fill and distribute sandbags all along the Northshore Road as well as assist with the damage assessment that is required for agencies and the public to be reimbursed for damages," Bakken wrote. "NMRFA crews also spent five hours at the St. Nicholas Episcopal Church in Tahuya helping with extensive flooding in the basement of the church. While the flood event was occurring crews were called to assist with two separate fully involved structure fires which were put out without injury."

On the west side of Hood Canal, where Lake Cushman residents were still digging out from snow that began Christmas Day, rain-soaked snow caused several structures to collapse.

"It's been a trying couple of weeks for everyone up here," Aaron Nix, general manager of Lake Cushman Maintenance Co., wrote in a Monday email to the Journal. "Our crews worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and for nine days straight in order to try to keep our roads open within the developments around Cushman.

"The snow event after the new year is the one we all have been struggling with and we are just now catching up, widening our roads - freeing them of snow - to improve ingress/egress within the Cushman developments."

Nix wrote that the maintenance company was aware of "a couple of collapsed structures" such as mobile homes and detached carports, and that the company's security team is trying to check on all areas of the developments it can reach safely.

Nix added there were "lots of trees down and cleanup work needed moving forward," and that it was still difficult to maneuver near the north and west areas of the lake.

Hoodsport Fire & EMS and LCMC assisted in the evacuation of a mobile home in the area damaged by the snow.

In a Monday news release, Mason County Public Health said it received reports of sewer system overflows and spills in several areas of the county due to the flooding.

The release identified overflowing manholes near Park Street in downtown Shelton flowing into Goldsborough Creek and Oakland Bay and a system spill onto a private beach at Harstene Point. It also reported a system spill near the North Bay sewer system treatment plant in Allyn that had no known contact to waterways.