CHEHALIS, Wash. (AP) - As the water started to rise outside their Lewis County home, Terry Roberts moved his cars to higher ground, shepherded his wife and two children into their RV and hit the road.

They didn't get far.

"We were on dry road and all of a sudden, the water started swirling around," Roberts said, standing with his wife in a temporary shelter in Chehalis after being rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. "That's when we got on the CB and called for help."

Roberts, 64, was among the hundreds who fled their homes after a fierce storm battered the Pacific Northwest, killing at least seven people and leading to widespread flooding that shut down a stretch of the region's major north-south thoroughfare.

By Wednesday, those who survived the drenching rain and howling wind were hoping for the muddy brown waters to recede so they could return home and see what was left.

Others were looking for the lost. In the Lewis County town of Winlock, a dive team planned to spend Wednesday searching normally tiny Wallers Creek for Richard Hiatt, 81, believed to have been swept away when a bank gave out from underneath him.

"It happened so quickly," daughter-in-law Sharon Hiatt said Tuesday as searches continued. "That's the only possibility, that he fell into the creek."

Gov. Chris Gregoire, who toured the ravaged region by helicopter Tuesday, touched down at a high school shelter in Chehalis and offered encouragement to the roughly 40 people staying there.

She also ordered a plane to deliver food and emergency supplies to the high school in Pe Ell, about 25 miles to the west, because the roads were blocked by water.

"It's hard to comprehend 5- to 10-feet under until you see those houses," Gregoire said.


My heart and prayers go out to all affected!!!

mine too

Please say a prayer for all involved!!!

our rivers are way up like 10 ft...... getting scarry... rain has stopped though thank gawd!!!!! glad i work in a area that was affected by closed off streets........ i feel for those in vernonia..... wasnt a flood zone and most had no insurance and lost most everything if they lived in a one level home... some were on their roofs all night waiting to be saved...all flodded in 10 minutes... no one had time to get out of there... most houses there are old and not on foundations .. i pray for them!

Wow!!!!

My thoughts are with them.

PS, can you manage to send some of that water to the SE????

A little at a time!!

very fitting picture wildside

may much good come to those involved

Well, we tried to send some of Mt Saint Helens toward the SE a few years ago....I guess we could try to send a little water....but we need most of it for our webbed feet up here in the NW

GA is like 25 inches below normal.

The tale of extremes is speaking loudly!

<-------Interstate-5 at CHEHALIS

I hope Duffy is ok!! She said yesterday she had to get going cuz of the storm, now she hasn't been on today...

I haven't heard of any REAL damage in her area.
I only live about ten miles from Duffy.
But if she needs any help I'd do it in a second!!