Evacuation and isolation, but no deaths or serious injuries

First came the snow, with record-setting accumulations that virtually paralyzed parts of Western Washington. Then came the deluge: inches upon inches of rain that steadily pounded the region Wednesday and Thursday.

The numbers were indeed impressive. Tens of thousands evacuated or were left isolated by floodwaters. Parts of Interstate 5 shut down — at an estimated cost of $4 million a day in delayed shipments alone.

All three major passes closed at least through Thursday afternoon, stranding countless travelers. And thousands of area residents were marooned in their communities as roads to and from became impassable.

The weather is expected to be much calmer over the next couple of days as temperatures go down and rain in the mountain passes turns to snow.

In King County, the corridor that stretches from Duvall to Maple Valley, and from East Lake Sammamish to Snoqualmie Pass, was particularly hard hit, as many residents resigned themselves to spending the next few days trying not to go stir-crazy as they dealt with record-high flooding.

But overall, emergency-management officials say, things went relatively smoothly. There were no flood-related casualties or major injuries reported, and particularly difficult rescues were rare. The warnings came early, and most people in flood-prone areas seemed to pay heed.

"Certainly, it's not over," said a cautious Lynne Miller, spokeswoman for King County Emergency Management, noting that officials are still waiting for floodwaters to recede. There were more than 40 road closures; some might not reopen for days. Before that happens, crews must assess the damage.

Meanwhile, beleaguered area residents in particularly hard-hit areas are trying to pick up the pieces.

Duvall

There was no way to drive in or out of Duvall on Thursday, and so its fire department made use of a 21-foot aluminum motorboat it normally uses for river rescues.

On two trips across the flooded Snoqualmie River Valley early Thursday afternoon, among its passengers were somebody with a kidney-dialysis appointment, somebody with a blood clot in his leg, somebody else who had fallen and broken his nose.

Woodinville firefighters awaited them, and a few couldn't help but marvel at the scene before them — not the passengers, but the sight of miles of pastureland now filled with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of gallons of floodwater.

"It's just amazing to see this amount of water," one of them said.

Monroe

Floodwaters arrived about noon Thursday at the 161-acre Deck Dairy farm about two miles south of Monroe, but the 500 cows standing in several inches of water still needed to be milked every 12 hours.

"If you don't milk them, they get stressed, and then they stop producing milk," said John Deck Sr., 67.

Like other locals, he took the flood in stride, sandbagging, keeping the refrigeration compressor going. Another year, another flood.

To step out of her house at the dairy, Jeannene Ramos had to put on wading boots.

She lives there with her husband, Jose Ramos, hired to run the dairy operation, and their three sons.

At least, she said, it was happening during daytime.

It's at night that it gets scary, said Ramos.

Orting

Chris Edwards was certain the Carbon River was going to bust through the levee behind her home on Orting's eastern edge, just like it did in 2006. This time, the levee held. But the stress of living next to the fast-flowing river is getting to be too much.

"I'm done. I can't deal with the stress anymore, but I can't sell," she said, explaining that she and a dozen of her neighbors are waiting for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to approve a buyout of their properties.

"It's too hard living here and just seeing the fear in everybody's eyes. It's too emotional," she said.

A steady caravan of dump trucks rumbled past Edwards' house, each one loaded with 10 tons of rock to shore up the levee along the Carbon River.

"We've had at least 100 loads, if not more," said David Carpenter, with the Army Corps of Engineers. Firs, cottonwoods and cedars were torn from the banks.

At the other end of town, Stephen Smith stepped over a stack of sandbags to get in his front door. The Puyallup River, which runs behind Smith's subdivision, flooded his crawl space in 2006. Then the water was mere inches from getting inside his home.

Smith, his girlfriend and her son spent Wednesday night elsewhere, getting as much of their furniture off the ground as they could before leaving. "I'm more than pleasantly surprised, I'm ecstatic," he said.

Snohomish

In the town of Snohomish, where rivers border two sides of the city, roads were closed and residents were evacuated from some flooded areas Thursday. Water from the Pilchuck River had poured into residential areas near 92nd Street Southeast, where the water overtopped a levee.

Flooding from the Snohomish River prompted the closure of Highway 9 just west of Harvey Field. Also, the Snohomish School District is closed today because flooding.

Elisa Hollandsworth put her family's things above what she thought would be flood level in her home off 92nd Street and left around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. She returned Thursday morning to find 6 inches of water in the house.

"We won't be able to move back," Hollandsworth said.

In Pilchuck Mobile Park, volunteers fought the rising river with sandbags and hay bales, forming lines in pouring rain from the park up to the Pilchuck River.

Mobile-park resident Tom Pickard, 65, said he loves living near the river. Most of the time.

"We enjoy it," Pickard said. "But this isn't enjoyable."

In Snohomish County about 140 residents were urged to evacuate after the Ebey Island Slough dike was breached shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday, flooding area homes.

Rising water from the White River near Pacific about 7:30 p.m. Thursday left homes underwater.

Seattle Times staff reporters Erik Lacitis, Sara Jean Green, Nicole Tsong, Charles E. Brown and Maureen O'Hagan contributed to this report.