Parts of Kent and Renton flooded and a landslide caused a house in Tacoma to slide into the Tacoma Narrows. One man died when he drove into a 40 feet (12 m) deep hole left behind when the road he was driving on was destroyed. Numerous roads were washed out in King County. Further south, a mudslide near Woodland also closed Interstate 5. The Skookumchuck River reached a new record high discharge, with the Chehalis River and Cowlitz River also getting well above flood stage. Near Centralia and Chehalis, Interstate 5 was covered by up to 10 feet (3.0 m) of water and the dike built to protect the Chehalis-Centralia Airport overflowed. Southwest Washington saw significant impacts. The dairy industry in Tillamook County with 500 cattle having drowned and sediment left behind covering about a quarter of the grazing land in the county. Several rivers flowing west out of the Oregon Coast Range into the Pacific also flooded. The water reached so high in Oregon City that Willamette Falls almost disappeared. Further upstream, cities from Oregon City to Corvallis were impacted by rising waters on the Willamette River and Oregon Department of Agriculture was forced to temporarily relocate to a new facility in the Salem area. Sandbags were placed along the downtown seawall to prevent flooding, but the river came a few inches short of overtopping the lowest sections. The Willamette River crested at 28.6 feet (8.7 m) in Portland on February 9, reaching major flood stage and causing some flooding issues in lowlying parts of the city, including the Northwest Industrial Area. Main article: Willamette Valley flood of 1996 It is estimated that flood control infrastructure in the Willamette Valley prevented additional damage around $1.1 billion (1996 value) in Portland alone. Projects completed on a few smaller waterways in the 1960s were also successful in limiting flooding, such as the concrete channel dug for the Palouse River in Colfax, Washington after the Christmas flood of 1964. Flood and Damage įlooding on the Columbia River itself was largely mitigated due to dams and other flood control measures taken after the 1948 Columbia River flood, though a few blocks in Vancouver were evacuated. With soils in many places either frozen or saturated, water resulting from rain falling on snowpack was unable to seep into the ground, instead remaining on the surface causing flooding. The moisture reached Washington and Oregon on February 6 and on the 8th, Seattle observed its wettest February day with 3.06 inches (78 mm) of rain at the airport. La Niña conditions with a ridge of high pressure over the Rocky Mountains and an Aleutian Low helped to drive the moisture into Washington and Oregon rather than into California. and Canadian west coast that are sourced in the tropical or subtropical Pacific Ocean. It was picked up by the jet stream and funneled toward the Pacific Northwest, reaching the region as a pineapple express, a name applied to atmospheric rivers observed on the U.S. In early February, a storm developed near Java and moved eastward. In places where the ground wasn't frozen, it was generally saturated with water. Prolonged cold settled in following the heavy snow, causing the ground to freeze throughout much of the Columbia Basin and surrounding valleys. Moscow, Idaho recorded 42 inches (110 cm) of snow in ten days during the second half of January. The weather pattern changed a few weeks later, producing significant snowfall in lowland areas. The winter of 1995-96 started with near to below average snowpack for much of the affected region with ski resorts opening later than usual.
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