Storm disrupts businesses in some areas

Monday's storm caused business disruptions in some of the region's hardest-hit spots, including a flooded business park in Bothell and the wind-battered coast.

At Bothell's North Creek Business Park, which was under a mandatory city evacuation order, the Spring Hill Suites hotel was accessible by only one out-of-the-way access road, said general manager Heather Stowe. "We're actually advising people not to come in, because they may not be able to get out," she said.

Business at the Bothell Home Depot was about half that of a normal Monday, manager Pat Berg said, but customers coming in were on a mission.

"We're selling a lot of emergency generators and pumps and bag of sands," he said. "It's definitely not a normal day."

The storm struck during what is supposed to be one of the busiest weeks of the year for retailers. Major malls in the Seattle area, including Bellevue Square, Northgate, Pacific Place and Westfield Southcenter, said they experienced no flooding or damage.

Susie Plummer, general manager at Seattle's University Village, said the storm did not appear to deter many shoppers. "Our parking lots have been full all day," she said.

Alderwood mall in Lynnwood saw "a few leaks here and there in the roof," said spokeswoman Koren Spas. Tacoma Mall suffered power outages in some areas, but power was expected to be restored by today, said spokeswoman Sarah Bonds.

Monday's closure of Interstate 5 from Grand Mound, south of Olympia, to Chehalis caused delivery delays for Portland-based Fred Meyer, which has about 40 stores in the Puget Sound area. Those stores get their bakery, dairy and nongrocery items delivered from Portland.

Spokeswoman Melinda Merrill said a distribution center in Puyallup, which provides most of the stores' grocery items, is fine.

In Grays Harbor, where high winds caused widespread power outages, the Imperium Renewables biodiesel plant stopped producing fuel and suffered minor damage, spokesman John Williams said. The plant should restart operations as soon as power is restored, Williams said. The $78 million plant, the largest biodiesel facility in the U.S., opened in August.

At Boeing's Renton plant, officials were monitoring two bridges over the Cedar River used to taxi new Boeing 737s to the apron on Renton's airfield, Boeing spokesman Cris McHugh said. The bridges were damaged by flooding several years ago, and since then Boeing has strengthened them. One bridge can now be raised when the water is too high. Everything was fine as of Monday afternoon, McHugh said.

At the Port of Seattle, no problems had been reported but, "we're knocking on all sorts of wood," spokeswoman Charla Skaggs said. Most Port cargo moves on rail cars and moves west to east, she said, so the closure of I-5 was not much of an issue, she said.

Sea-Tac International Airport was operating normally after a brief closure of one lane of Highway 518 on Monday morning.