First-person report as the floodwaters take over I-5

Editor's note: Imagine being one of the last people to drive on Interstate 5 on Monday, just as the waters of the Chehalis River were lapping over the highway and forcing it to close. Brian Schaeperkoetter, marketing and promotions manager with the Seattle Times news department, had that experience with his family Monday. This is their story.

If you were traveling on I-5 Monday afternoon, you were either lucky (ahead of the flashing barricade lights) or unlucky (behind them). We were some of the lucky ones.

My family and I were returning from a weekend in central Oregon and were into our sixth hour of driving on our way home to Seattle. We had been following news of the storm, but our biggest concern, or so we thought, was about our basement — not our road trip home.

But as we approached Centralia, the enormity of the flooding became apparent.

Wide swaths of farmland looked like lakes. Water lapped at the front doors of motels, churches and fast-food restaurants. And, most disconcerting, a ditch-bursting stream of water surged alongside the interstate.

And then, rounding a bend as we approached Chehalis, we saw it happening, as the floodwaters spilled onto the interstate.

Southbound lanes were completely submerged, under about a foot of water. Only a dividing wall kept it from spilling over onto the northbound lanes, where we were driving — and all but one northbound lane were under water as well.

We caught a traffic report on the radio and learned that I-5 was being shut down just a mile or so north of where we were. Looking in the rearview mirror, we saw the flashing lights of a DOT truck two cars behind us.

We realized that if we didn't stay ahead of that truck, we'd be stuck.

Battery-depleted cell phones, road-weary heads and two restless kids in the back seat were all the motivation we needed to push the speed limit on a quest for drier ground. As we sped ahead, the traffic behind us fell to a standstill and we realized we were one of a handful of lucky travelers who had avoided the shutdown.

To our left, I-5 south was completely empty and, although we were nearing bathroom emergencies and a low tank of gas, we sped on, putting as much distance between us and the roadblock as possible. Minutes later, we came upon the southbound roadblock — a five-mile-and-growing line of trucks and cars, their drivers probably just figuring out that they would be spending the next several hours in their cars trying to get off the interstate and the next two days trying to get to their travel destinations.

We were spared that fate by less than a minute and, after a food, gas and potty pit-stop, we arrived home to a dry house and (yes) soggy basement — which in hindsight, didn't seem so bad after all.