Thursday, Jan. 08, 2009

Our crazy new year weather

By Joe Chapman, Herald staff writer

If it wasn't bolted down or rooted into the ground, chances were good it blew over or blew away in the Tri-Cities the past two days.

Then again, things that were bolted and rooted didn't fare much better.

Wind speeds averaged 20 to 30 mph Tuesday night and most of Wednesday. Gusts reached 40 to 50 mph -- even 60 mph about 8 p.m. Tuesday.

It was another twist in the wacky weather the Tri-Cities have experienced this winter, delivering snow, wind and now the chance of flooding in the coming days. The wind will stick around today and finally settle down Friday.

The patio furniture was sliding around on the deck of Larry Corning's Richland home about 8 p.m. Tuesday as he sat inside watching TV. But then he heard a big thud outside -- the sound of a 55-foot spruce landing in his driveway.

"It wasn't earth-shattering or anything. I just walked outside, and there it was, laying down," said Corning, 68. "It kind of trapped us in the house in that it was completely across the driveway, so we couldn't get our vehicles out."

It was a good tree Corning was sorry to lose, he said. It had stood in the yard longer than the 30 years he and his family have lived in the home.

The fate of his spruce was typical of other fir trees, sheds, awnings and trampolines throughout the area. One Herald reader submitted a photo of a trampoline that blew onto the fairway at Kennewick's Canyon Lakes Golf Course.

Wind-related power outages also were reported in parts of Benton and Franklin counties Tuesday night. About 800 homes in the Rancho Reata area were without power from about 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., said Benton PUD's Karen Miller.

American Tree Service of Kennewick responded to more than a half-dozen calls of fallen trees on Wednesday and had more lined up for the days to come. All but one were pines and spruces.

It wasn't just the wind's fault, said Sandi True, arborist and owner of American Tree Service. The soil, saturated from all the melting snow, was too wet to hold the trees in the ground.

Pines and spruces were particularly vulnerable because their branches are too dense for the wind to blow through, the way it does with deciduous trees, True said. Some of the trees snapped at the base and with others, their root balls just came right out of the ground, she said.

More winds were expected today. The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory stemming from a strong weather system crossing the Cascade Mountains on Wednesday night and a cold front crossing the interior Pacific Northwest through this afternoon.

In the Tri-Cities today, winds out of the west-southwest should be about 24 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph.

The wind should die down by Friday, dropping to 10 mph out of the south-southwest, the weather service reported.

The area also will continue to deal with lingering effects from the dozen or so days of snow it has gotten since mid-December. The melting snow and additional rain have softened some county roads and brought the risk of flooding to Mid-Columbia rivers.

The Yakima River in Benton County could reach a flood stage of 13 feet Saturday morning, according to Benton County Emergency Services. That's a preliminary forecast based on current weather conditions and the amount of water upstream from the county, said Emergency Manager Bob Spencer.

Livestock may be vulnerable to localized flooding in Benton County. In previous years horses and cattle have been stranded by water running through pastures.

The Benton County Public Works Department put severe load restrictions on several roads that are soft from all the moisture.

They include Sellards Road, from McKinley Springs Road to Travis Road; on Bert James Road, from Sellards Road to Highway 221; on County Well Road, from Highway 221 to Travis Road; on Travis Road, from Sellards Road to County Well Road; on McKinley Springs Road, from Alderdale Road to Sellards Road; and on Township Road, from the Klickitat County line to the Sellards-McKinley Springs intersection.

In Franklin County, no road restrictions were issued, but water was on several roads that officials would be monitoring. The county may put a brief restriction on part of Sagehill Road, said Tim Fife, public works director.

The Walla Walla River near Touchet was at 8.68 feet Wednesday morning and was expected to hit flood stage of 13 feet in the evening and continue to rise to 15 feet by this morning, said the National Weather Service.

Gay Ernst, director of Walla Walla Emergency Management, said she saw some high flows in the rivers but no water outside the banks when she went on an aerial survey with the Washington State Patrol on Wednesday.

But if it rained Wednesday night, it could lead to some flooding between Touchet and Wallula Junction, she said.

The Umatilla River at Pendleton was expected to be at 6.74 feet by early Friday morning. That's still a little below the 7.8 feet that could cause minor flooding of lowland areas along the river from Riverside through Pendleton and to Reith.

Numerous small creeks, including Coppei, Mill, Yellowhawk and Meacham, also were expected to rise rapidly Wednesday night and early today.

-- Staff writers Paula Horton and Annette Cary contributed to this report.