8:00 am Wednesday Update...
ODOT crews worked through the night to fix the problem; Highway 35 is now open again.
7:00 pm Update...
From Matt's Blog on the Mt. Hood Meadows website (www.skihood.com):
"ODOT has assessed the situation and a crew will be working through the night to repair the damage. It appears to be a repair that will take hours, not days, using an excavator and a couple of dump trucks (We LOVE that big yellow equipment!). We'll have an update at 8:30 AM Wednesday."
So... a bad situation tonight, but a relatively quick fix is coming it seems.
By the way, this particular flood and the damage caused by it is not the result of another "glacial outburst". Glacial outburst floods, like the devastating one last fall, are caused when warm, heavy rain falls on mountain glaciers bare of snow. The heavy rain saturates the exposed glaciers and dams that build-up within them burst, sending a torrent down into the canyons below. Since these events happen when the mountain is devoid of snow, lots of volcanic dirt, rocks and boulders get mixed into the outburst flood. Last night's flood was the result of heavy rain and fairly rapid snow melt -- nothing more.
Original Post...
Here we go again... sort of.
Nearly 2" of rain fell on Mt. Hood yesterday & last night all the way up to 9,000 feet. This is a minor amount compared to the 8-10" that fell a year ago November, causing the great "Glacial Outburst" flood that severely damaged Highway 35. However, last night's rain has caused flooding problems again.
Polallie Creek is overflowing its banks and water is running across Highway 35. This is near the Cooper Spur intersection. The highway is blocked and closed at that point, meaning that travel between Hood River and Mt. Hood is not possible along Highway 35 right now. ODOT has not announced a timetable for its reopening.
Access to Mt. Hood Meadows is only available via travel through Government Camp along Highway 26. Highway 35 is open from the Highway 26 junction to Mt. Hood Meadows. There are no problems at White River Canyon (where severe damage occurred last year.)
It is unclear whether or not access to Cooper Spur is possible, given that Polallie Creek is flooding Highway 35 very near where Cooper Spur road intersects Highway 35.
More information posted here as I get it...
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2 comments:
Gee, I hope they can get 35 opened up again soon...MH Meadows doesn't need another year like last, plenty of snow, but no way to get there. At least there is one way to get there. Looks like more low snow levels for later in the week, I'm guessing good powder snow. Did any resort loose a lot of snow from the warm rain?
Tyler,
The snowpack took a BIG hit with the rain. Without being up there to see, I can only guess that there are now bare spots in places. Timberline and Meadows each lost about 1.5 feet of their snow base. Not catastrophic, but certainly debilitating.
Aside from an inch or two tonight & tomorrow, there's not much hope for snow until early next week.
-DJ
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