N.W. Washington State Storm Coverage

It's been a mess out here.

I couldn't get to work Monday due to flooding.

The more general Seattle area is doing alright. It's the outlying areas which are in deep trouble.

This is KING5 helicopter footage of the massive floods near my mother-in-law's home 25 miles from Chehalis. All of Centralia/Chehalis is pretty much under water. Interstate 5 is detoured at Exit 88. It's an over 400 mile detour down to Portland for the big trucks.

Here are more storm videos.

I live roughly 300+ feet above the valley floor. On purpose. Having lived through one mass flood down near Centralia/Chehalis in the early 90s, when we moved to the Seattle suburb where we live now, I made certain we were well above the flood plain.

This has proven wise several times over. We have a big back yard, backed up against a steep ravine which goes down to a year-round creek which in times of flooding, transforms into something you wouldn't want to get caught in. The hill is heavily wooded and while mud slides are in general a major problem during these storms, I've never been seriously worried about losing the back yard to a slide.

Trains were stopped due to slides. Hundred mile winds at the seashore.

This storm wasn't nearly as bad as last year's December Hanukkah storm which left about a million people without power, some of them for up to ten days. But that was snow and wind and rebuilding half of the power grid. (We were without power for two days.) This is the kind of flooding we get maybe every ten years, boats cruising down streets, big Sears stores drowned in water up to your eyeballs kind of fun.

It is still raining. Hasn't stopped except briefly.

I hear Portland is in bad shape, but we're all so busy taking care of ourselves, I frankly haven't had time to check. Anyone who knows, please chime in. Photos would be great as well.

Again, things are back to normal in greater Seattle, mostly. It's once you get outside of King County that everything is still rough. If you're local, please let us know how you're doing.

And hey... let's make this a weather thread in general. East Coast as I understand, and the middle of the country, all had some pretty rough weather.

How are you doing weather-wise right now? Feel free to link to photos.

Is everyone safe?