Toppenish residents are speaking up and cleaning up.
They're joining people from many other local towns and cities that have begun to deal with
the aftermath of the Flood of 96.
Good evening, I'm Dave Edel.
And I'm Heather Hayes.
Thanks for joining us tonight on First at Five.
Well, sandbags, shovels, and good old fashioned sweat, the tools of the day.
So many homes, towns, and people have been affected by these devastating floods and first
we're going to show you pictures from several spots around the valley and then we're going
to take you to Toppenish and show you the cleanup efforts that are happening there.
But first, we head out to Autanum.
And we're on our way.
Sandbags and haystacks are all over the Autanum area.
Residents are still trying to combat the floodwaters, but so far they haven't been all that successful.
As waters stream through houses and into streets, residents can only watch the water flood their
area and surround their homes.
Roadsides are beginning to erode and streets are getting more and more narrow.
The greenway has been hit for the second time.
Pathways are going to have to be reconstructed.
The floods have eroded away the original portion of the dike and a crew member at the Yakima
Greenway says this is one of the newest sections of the park.
It's going to take the rest of the year to complete the reconstruction.
The flood also took its toll on our major highway, I-82.
The raging waters took a bite out of I-82 south of the Canyon Road.
This explains the traffic that was backed up on Friday.
The crew members say that it's going to take about three weeks to get it reconstructed.
The road going northbound has not been affected and will remain open.
However, drivers going southbound will have to reroute through East Seal Road.
The Natchez River Bridge near the junction of Highway 12 and Highway 14 is teetering
near a collapse.
Floodwaters washed out a major chunk of the eastern end of the bridge.
The Washington State Department of Transportation says that damage will cost more than a million
dollars.
A Bailey Bridge is being transported to replace this one and they're hoping to have it open
by next weekend.
Construction crews are trying to block off the floods to start repairing the road on
Highway 12.
The crew members say the water has risen more than 10 feet at its normal level.
There's the other ones that are worse, Floor 10 one's out a little farther than this and
we have another one down by the firing center.
It's a little harder because they can't detour traffic as easy as this area.
They're expecting that it will be another three weeks before the highway is open again.
And the bridge near White Swan remains closed tonight.
The Mudlake Drain Bridge on Fort Road will be torn down and rebuilt.
Pile lengths for the bridge partially gave way after last Friday's flooding resulting
in the pavement cracks that you see here.
No word yet on when the reconstruction will begin.
Well meanwhile, the city of Prosser is having water troubles.
Three food processing plants are shut down and residents are being asked to cut back
on both water and sewer use.
High floodwaters washed away two of the three sewer lines that carry wastewater to the city's
treatment plant.
One line was used for industrial wastewater and the other was a domestic sewage standby
line.
The engineers are now trying to figure out how much industrial waste can be diverted
on the residential line and also looking at the construction of a temporary line.
A lot of lower valley residents took the day off today to continue cleaning up after all
this flooding.
No kidding.
First to five Steve Clutterbuck spent some time today at Toppenish and we join him now
live in the newsroom.
Heather, Dave, I was surprised at how much the river has receded over the last 24 hours.
You don't see a whole lot of water standing on the ground anymore, but that means a lot
of people are out cleaning up the mess.
Neighbors of this Toppenish trailer park took the day off today to clean up the mess.
The mess that the flood of 96 gave them, a flood that took many by surprise.
I'm telling my wife that we don't have nothing to worry about, it ain't going to come this
far.
There's people out there sandbagging.
But I went down the corner and seen that water coming about half a block away and it's like
geez, is it still going to hit us?
A half hour later it was here at our front door.
Most of the damage happened to homes and businesses on the east side of Toppenish, near the river.
And even though this trailer park is about a half mile away from that same river, it
got hit hard and it will take some time to clean it up.
The cleanup here ain't done, there's still a week, there's a week or two worth of cleanup
here to do.
Unfortunately for the owners of this new complex on Lincoln Street, it's going to be a while
before their cleanup can begin because there's still 2 to 3 feet of water still on the ground.
Although many people experienced tragedy and loss this weekend, they will forever talk
of the flood of 96 and how it brought a community together.
The community pitched in and even as bad as they make the little gangs sound, you know,
they were here for everybody.
They did help.
They were, yeah.
There was no such thing as colors or whatever, everybody was pitching in.
It was really nice.
It was really gratifying to see so many people today talk about how what a warm feeling there
was in Toppenish with all the people working together to clean up the mess.
And Toppenish wasn't the only lower valley city to begin cleaning.
County workers were out appraising damaged roads and bridges in Wapato today and so was
the supervisor from a local produce processing plant.
You see, the flooded Yakima River carried nearly 1,000 proof-ins away.
He says it will take many weeks to round up the bins.
At least a month, a minimum of a month, and the more we get into it, the more people we'll
bring onto it.
Right now, we're just looking to see what it's going to take to get all these out.
We're going to use our tractors, our forklifts, and the availability of equipment to get them.
Audrey says the bins were carried, 1,000 bins were carried nearly over a 4-mile stretch
and he said at $40 a bin, that's a lot of money.
Heather and Dave?
Steve, so far in talking to the different residents and different people in Toppenish, have you
run across any dollar estimates yet of what, I mean we've looked at timelines already,
but what is this going to cost everybody?
That is going to be something that is going to take some time.
Right now, all the assessing will be done probably for the next week or so, and county
assessor Dan Hessey is looking at that and hopefully, again, a week or two we'll have
some numbers on it, premature at this point.
So in a week or two we'll have the numbers, but in the meantime, four to six weeks then
to clean up everything.
And to still zigzag around the highways.
The highway is a confusing maze unless you know just what detours to take.
We've got some updated information for you as of 4 o'clock this afternoon.
Now I-82 is closed between Granger and the junction with US-97 at Union Gap.
Now if you're heading toward Union Gap, a permanent detour has been constructed and
it will remain like this for the next few weeks.
On Interstate 82 headed southbound, all lanes are closed at the Acoma Training Center.
All lanes are now open at Resthaven Road on US-12 Natchez.
The roadway is closed at the Natchez River Bridge.
Washington State Patrol says to expect delays on most roads.
And when you come to measure the rivers, the numbers at last are at least on the encouraging
side.
That's right.
They are starting to go down around central Washington.
The major rivers are.
Like you said, going down, Chris Kennedy is down at the Acoma River.
Chris, what are the levels out there?
Well, Dave and Heather, if you needed to have some visual proof, right there it is, the
Acoma River down here at Sarge Hobart Landing.
It is inside of its banks, kind of a pleasant scene.
Now as we look around central Washington at the major rivers, the Acoma River is measured
just down the way, down at Parker.
And this afternoon it measured in at even on the 10 foot flood stage.
Now just to the northwest of us, the Natchez River comes into the Acoma River.
It's measured up at Natchez.
It was at one tenth of an inch over its 17 foot flood stage.
Now as this water moves past, it is, as you can see, beginning to reduce the risk that
we're looking at.
But as it gets downstream and joins into the Columbia, a whole different story.
The Columbia River is causing major problems still down in the Portland area, and in Portland
the Columbia is about seven feet above flood stage.
As the water drops, there are some reminders though, it is still very hazardous, as we've
just seen in the several reports, it can be very difficult if you're driving.
So you need to be very careful, lots of potholes have shown up and drivers be prepared for
all those reroutings.
Well, as you can see, beautiful sunlit afternoon, let's go ahead and take our first look for
this Monday afternoon.
As we look around central Washington, mostly high 30s is what we're reporting, feels great
outside.
Sunset coming at 521 this afternoon and the Bromner currently dropping off a little.
David, Heather?
Thanks Chris.
It was another gorgeous day, again, contrasting all the floods that we've got out there.
And when we come back, we're going to have more on the flood cleanup from around the
region.
And we'll have some tips for developing a better relationship with your child.
People are also trying to stop a different kind of fallout from the floods.
This water intake plant near Oregon City sits below a steep hill where mudslides have already
occurred.
So crews moved in today to start cutting down trees that could become a part of the slide
and that could potentially crash into the water plant, which serves close to 40,000
people.
And they're afraid that that does come down, that the water plant will be taken out.
And in downtown Oregon City, one grocery store had seven foot waves moving through it at
the peak of the floods.
So like everywhere else, rubber boots are the shoe of choice.
Folks in Seattle are also picking up the pieces, and like those in Oregon City, they're starting
by cutting down trees.
At least a dozen trees slid down this hillside today, blocking traffic on the road below,
causing a lot of inconvenience.
The trees are sliding down the hills with the mudslides, which doesn't necessarily worry
homeowners living below the hill.
The Seattle Department of Engineers is more worried about those driving below the potentially
dangerous area that could be caught off guard in their cars by falling trees.
Well, turning to other news this evening, ask any mom or dad, and they'll tell you their
biggest challenge in life isn't their career.
Parents say raising kids takes the most work, energy, and time compared to any job.