A wet tradition: No escape from annual flood for Lower Valley campers, farmers | Photo gallery

Published 4:27 pm Wednesday, February 22, 2012

With only one month to go until spring, Fall City resident Ken Meadors thought he might have lucked out, surviving the winter of 2012 flood-free.

But Mother Nature had other ideas, so there Meadors was, packing up his fifth wheel for a short trip to higher ground as the sun set Tuesday, Feb. 21.

“I was just about ready to set-up permanent,” he said. “Then you get that snow combination with the ‘Pineapple Express’, and you’re done.”

Melting snow and days of heavy rain brought flooding to the region, and the Lower Valley was in line for a soaking. With the Snoqualmie River expected to overtop its banks by evening, Snoqualmie River RV Park and campground residents like Meador had until sundown to pack up and head for higher ground.

The Fall City campers may have been inconvenienced, but they’re mostly old hands at the flood routine.

Mike Creasey seemed positive enough, revving down the lane on his Kawasaki motorcycle, checking on the five or so campers left.

If the water rises high enough, the entire campground is cut off.

“If we leave, we all leave together and come back together,” Creasey said. “All our houses have wheels. We’re all ready to go in a few minutes.”

Creasey makes the best of the bad situation. Back at his camper, he lit a “protest fire,” and planned a bigger campfire when he and his neighbors regroup.

“We all take it in good stride,” he said. “You have a flood party.”

Meadors has called the Fall City campground home for 16 years, Creasey, five.

“We’re what they call the year-rounders,” he said. “Most of us have everything we own down here. We tough out these bad times because this is a great spot.”

In the last major flood, January of 2009, Meadors had to replace everything he left behind. His shelter and barbecue pit appears well-loved and lived in, with a row of tiki torches, lawn decorations and a good-sized, old-fashioned television.

“I’ve got too much stuff to move away permanently,” Meadors said.

But stripes of paint on a nearby tree show high water marks, signs that this home’s stability is at the whim of nature.

To campground co-owner Dan Woodward, the floods are “a super pain in the butt,” but he’s happy that he’s gone so long this season without a flood.

“Some years, we don’t have any,” he said. “Other years, we get a bunch.”

Despite the news reports, Creasey and Meadors are doubtful that their sites and remaining possessions, such as Ceasey’s extra firewood or Meadors’ landscape decorations, will wash away.

“It’s a gamble I’m willing to take,”  Creasey said.

A ‘moderate’ flood

On Wednesday morning, Fall City farmer Erick Haakenson watched whitewater flowing into his fields.

Instead of dry farmland, “I’m looking at a large lake,” he said. The Snoqualmie in flood had covered low-lying farmland from Fall City to Carnation with a glassy, rippling lake.

But Haakenson wasn’t panicking. Owner of Jubilee Farm for two decades, he’s experienced enough in flooding to accurately predict how water will affect his property based on the upstream gage readings.

Haakenson made sure important implements were raised out of harm’s way late Tuesday. On Wednesday, he was ready to jump in a rowboat and make his way to a waiting Jetta, parked safely above the flood level, to drive to Bellevue College, where he teaches an environmental ethics class. A glance at the computer showed flood levels already falling upstream.

By Wednesday afternoon, flood flows in the Upper Valley were in retreat. At 3 p.m., gages at the Forks of the Snoqualmie and the falls showed that water levels had crested. A crest is expected this afternoon at Carnation. The flood looks to have topped out around 28,000 cubic feet per second at Snoqualmie Falls, somewhat lower than the floods of January 2011 and about half as powerful as the January 2009 flood.

High waters closed roads in the Valley including West Snoqualmie River Road near Fall City, Tolt Hill Road in Carnation, and Mill Pond Road, Reinig Road, Northern Street and the Meadowbrook Bridge in Snoqualmie.

Residents are strongly cautioned not to drive around road closure signs or through deep standing water. Driving through flood water can cause your vehicle to stall or lose control, which can have life-threatening consequences.

Updated information about flooding and real-time river levels are is posted on the King County website at www.kingcounty.gov/flood and on RPIN, the area’s regional website at http://www.rpin.org. A recorded flood-information hotline is also updated each hour for citizens wanting information in flood areas. The number is 206-296-8200 or 1-800-945-9263.

• You can learn more about road closures in the Valley at www.kingcounty.gov/roads.  If you see a problem on a road maintained by King County, report it by calling 206-296-8100 or 1-800-KC ROADS.

Mike Creasey, a resident of the Snoqualmie River RV Park and campground, checks on neighbors on his Kawasaki motorcycle. Residents were forced from their homes to higher ground by high water, but, like Creasey, many make the best of a bad situation.

Ken Meadors stands near his permanent campsite at Fall City. He’s been through more than a decade of floods, minor and major, at the Fall City RV park.

High water washes over West Snoqualmie River Road Wednesday morning, Feb. 22, near Fall City.