PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Road crews in both Oregon and Washington took advantage of a break in the weather to check roads for any damage left behind.
Don Hamilton with the Oregon Department of Transportation said crews were busy in the Columbia River Gorge. Landslides remain a concern and something they’re monitoring in the Gorge and throughout the state.
“With the amount of rain that we have had, that increases the possibility of slides. Everybody has to be very careful and look out for slides,” Hamilton told KOIN 6 News. “We have our crews out there watching in some of the trouble spots to see if there are areas that we need to watch out and be careful to see if anything needs to be done to make sure we are not going to have any problems.”
Several major roads connecting the Seattle area to the rest of the country remained closed Saturday, the Associated Press reported.
Austin Majors with the Lewis County (Washington) Road Maintenance Division said 4 more water rescues happened overnight and 52 people are utilizing the shelter services in the county.
Majors said all the rivers crested overnight in Lewis County but most of them crested below what was forecast. However, the Chehalis River in Centralia crested above the projection and remained in a moderate flood stage on Saturday.
Officials are hoping it drops to a minor flood stage later Saturday.
Several roads have water over them and Majors said even where the water is receding some locatiions have debris on the roadways.
The Lewis County Public Works team is getting out the information about road closures and assessing where cleanups need to happen,
