Interstate 5 reopens to trucks

Interstate 5 near Chehalis reopened to truck traffic Thursday evening after a mad rush by road crews to drain floodwaters from the highway, clear debris and repair damage.

To the cheers of transportation workers, a caravan of trucks escorted by a State Patrol car drove north through the area that was underwater only hours earlier.

Crews hope to have all lanes open and allow regular traffic sometime today.

Drivers should be prepared for sloppy pavement, including mud on the road.

"It could still be rough roadway, so drivers should expect slower speeds," said Stan Suchan, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

A 20-mile stretch of freeway had been closed since Monday's drenching storm pushed the Chehalis River over its banks.

On Wednesday, transportation officials expected the road would remain closed at least until the weekend. But once the water drained, they found less damage than they had feared.

Crews pushed hard to reopen the vital transportation link.

The department has had about 100 people working on the highway since Wednesday afternoon, cleaning and repairing road, spokeswoman Alice Fiman said. The department has spent about $500,000 on the work so far.

"We've been throwing everything we have at it," she said.

About 10,000 trucks and 44,000 passenger vehicles use I-5 through the region every day. Many truckers waited out the closure while others took a long detour through Yakima.

By the time the freeway reopened Thursday evening, there were more than 1,000 trucks ready to head northbound, and hundreds more poised to make the southbound run.

Many other state highways closed by floods also have reopened, and power has been restored in most areas.

Out of 64 highways closed earlier this week, only 15 remained closed Thursday. About 29,000 people were without power, down from more than 72,000 after the brunt of the storm hit Monday.

Amtrak service also resumed Thursday between Portland and Vancouver, B.C.

Those are about the only bright spots, however. While the rains have diminished and the rivers are dropping, "we've got some tough stuff coming," Gov. Christine Gregoire said.

Flood victims are leaving emergency shelters and returning to their sodden homes.

"Those people are going to go home and see the tremendous damage. They're going to have lost all their personal possessions," Gregoire said. "I just hope they thank God they're alive."

Gregoire on Thursday asked President Bush to declare Lewis and Grays Harbor counties a federal disaster area. More counties may be added later. Once Bush acts, it will clear the way for money for temporary housing, home repairs, counseling and small-business loans. The state also plans to offer disaster unemployment checks and food stamps.

In the meantime, hundreds of Red Cross workers, National Guard troops, state police and volunteers are fanning out to help people in need. Gregoire said many businesses also are pitching in, noting that Wal-Mart has delivered bottled water and offered its trucks and drivers to deliver supplies.

As of Thursday, 10,000 people still needed to boil their water for drinking, and 2,800 people were without running water.

Officials have no estimates yet for the number of people who've been left homeless, or how many homes and businesses have been damaged or destroyed.

On Wednesday night, 646 people stayed in emergency shelters, down from more than 750 on Tuesday.

There's also no estimate for the total amount of damage, although Gregoire has said she expects it to run into the billions of dollars. Numbers are expected by next week.

State transportation officials said they'd predicted earlier that I-5 wouldn't reopen until the weekend because they worried the floodwaters were hiding more extensive damage to the pavement.

Trucking companies were more than eager for the highway to reopen.

"The impact has been substantial," said Brent Vander Pol, operations manager for Peninsula Truck Lines in Auburn.

Vander Pol said his company normally has 30 to 40 trucks a day that travel that section of I-5, or about 40 percent of their business. Detours through Yakima added about 300 miles to the drivers' round trips between Seattle and Portland, he said.

The closure prevented sandwiches from reaching roughly 180 Starbucks locations in Portland and southwestern Washington from the company's Seattle bakery.

Safeway's Auburn distribution center has run low on some supplies, but it hasn't run out, and none of the 197 stores it supplies in Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho have been affected, spokeswoman Cherie Myers said.

Staff reporters Hal Bernton and Melissa Allison contributed to this report.

Andrew Garber: 360-236-8268