Flood patrol: "This could get pretty crazy"

Like generals surveying the front lines, Brian Sleight and Dennis Clark drove a pickup to the edge of the muddy, writhing Tolt River on Monday and sized up the narrow stretch of dirt that separated it from the Tolt River Road near Carnation.

Clark's voice was filled with excitement and awe as he watched tree trunks rush past. "Oh, there's some big wood out there," he said.

Sleight and Clark, members of the King County flood patrol, spent the day getting a visceral, front-seat view of the rising waters in East King County, as the steady, remorseless rain fell.

When the waters rise here, they and other members of a small team of county workers are dispatched to survey the earth and rock defenses that separate homes, roads and businesses from the floodwaters. They are the eyes of the operation.

And all the water they saw Monday, combined with the forecast of more rain, left them bracing for a big one.

"This could get pretty crazy," said Sleight, who has done this work since 1992.

On days like Monday, the rivers try to reclaim the land. And Sleight and Clark take to the roads to try to help make sure it doesn't happen.

Roused at 5 a.m. by a phone call, they spent the morning patrolling the banks of the Snoqualmie River's South Fork. Then they headed for the Tolt River, guided by news that water levels there had surged.

They quickly saw the evidence: A few miles east of Carnation, a low section of the Tolt River Road was covered by brown, flowing water. A barricade declared the road closed. Sleight pulled up the hood of his neon-green rain jacket, grabbed a tall wooden pole and headed toward the flood.

As he waded in, he probed into the water, trying to figure out whether it was safe to drive through or the waters had washed away the pavement.

People often die in floods when they try to drive through high water, Clark explained. He stood at the water's edge with a rescue rope, just in case his partner fell in.

Along came a tan pickup and, disregarding the closure sign, it plowed on through the water.

The two inspectors decided to turn around and head downstream to a huge rock embankment built where the river curves toward the road. If the river were to chew through that bank, the road would go next. But they saw no immediate problems.

Next, they drove onto a road that ran atop a levee. They looked for signs of weakness — a spot where water was seeping through the levee, perhaps, or a section caved in, or a place where the river was flowing over the top.

Later in the day, the Snoqualmie River overran a levee near North Bend. But for the moment, this levee was holding.

They looked across the river to a row of homes on the other side, as the levee neared Carnation.

The river was racing past. It was just a few feet below the top of the levee.

But, Clark noted, "I believe the river is still rising."

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com