Neighbors in Snoqualmie pitch in to help mop up the flood mess

SNOQUALMIE — Friends, family and even former neighbors turned out Friday to help residents mop up the muck when the floodwaters that cut off the town this week finally receded.

"Everyone tries to pull together and help out," said Rusty Pressnall, checking the progress made by a portable pump chugging water from the basement of a house a couple of blocks from the still-swollen Snoqualmie River.

It's not Pressnall's house, but he used to live next door and knew the occupants were vacationing in Hawaii. As it became clear the river was going to spill its banks in a big way, relatives descended on the yellow bungalow to move as much stuff as possible out of harm's way. Then Pressnall showed up with his pump when the roads reopened.

"The water got within 6 inches of the main floor," he said, peering down the basement stairwell, where more than a foot of murky water still sloshed. He fired up the pump at 8:30 a.m. and estimated the job wouldn't be done until midafternoon.

"Then we'll hose it down to get rid of the mud."

And, yes, he'd rather be in Hawaii, too.

So, no doubt, would many of the 9,300 people who live in the Cascade foothill town.

"It is definitely one of our worst floods," said city spokeswoman Joan Pliego.

The town center was turned into an island by floodwaters, and all routes in and out were blocked off Wednesday and much of Thursday. Many of the 1,600 downtown residents evacuated voluntarily, but city crews in boats made several rescue runs as all other means of escape were severed.

The road that runs from Snoqualmie to Fall City will probably be closed for another week because of a washout, Pliego said.

On Friday, lines of debris and trash outlined the path the runaway river followed. Many sidewalks and streets wore a layer of mud, including the parking lot at Mount Si High School. More than 100 people answered the Snoqualmie Valley School District's call for volunteers to help clean up the school, where the river drowned athletic fields and poured into the auditorium, band room, and a cafe where students train in food-service skills.

"We had to kayak in yesterday to do an inspection," said district superintendent Joel Aune.

A vacant lot downtown was turned into a temporary garbage dump, with valley residents lining up to dispose of truckloads of waterlogged furniture, ruined books, soaked cardboard and pile upon pile of carpet and carpet pad.

"This is my third load so far," said Ronald Moe, pulling up with a sad-looking couch in the back of his Mazda pickup.

Front-end loaders lofted the debris into container cars. Four of the 30-cubic-yard containers were nearly full.

"This will go on nonstop for the next two days," said Mike Roy, whose official title is public works and operations manager. "Today, 'garbage czar' is more like it," he said with a laugh.

At a small trailer park on the banks of the river, managers were surveying the damage when a group from a Kirkland-based Buddhist charity pulled up.

"We're trying to find people who need help," said Ching Kim, who directs the local arm of the Tzu Chi Foundation. The organization helped more than 300 families in Lewis County after floods in 2007, passing out $300 debit cards, Kim said.

Just down the road, Grant Longwill was hoping for help, now that most of his possessions were ruined in the apartment he was renting with a Mount Si view.

"I'm totally homeless," he said, wrapping up a clock radio and a few books in a small quilt, and carrying them out to his vehicle, a red-white-and-blue ambulance converted to a truck with sleeping quarters. He pointed out his shattered television, lying in the front yard. He slipped in the mud while carrying it out, and dropped it.

"And I just got laid off a couple weeks ago," he said.

Most of the flood casualties were material.

But Harold Schenne, who has weathered eight floods in the 20 years he's lived in his home near the river, was dealing with a different type of loss.

"That's Brad," he said, holding up a plastic bag that contained the body of a silvery goldfish with orange-tipped fins.

Now nearly a foot long, the fish was smaller two years ago when Schenne discovered it swimming in his yard after an earlier flood. He figures it was washed out of an aquarium or pond.

Schenne named the fish for a friend, and kept it.

But when the power went out this week, the aquarium pump stopped and Brad perished.

Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com