Orting residents told: Evacuate!

Firetrucks rolled through Orting, Pierce County, on Wednesday with loudspeakers advising everyone to leave the town and surrounding valley, home to about 26,000 people.

Sandbags were placed around many homes and businesses in the town about 10 miles southeast of Tacoma as the Puyallup River neared record levels.

"They expect the town of Orting to go underwater," Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. "This is going to be worse than 1996."

The Puyallup River was expected to have crested late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Sandbagging efforts in town were called off Wednesday afternoon because of the rising water. "It's too dangerous," Troyer said. "The water is coming over the top of the sandbags."

By 5 p.m., downtown Orting was strangely quiet. Only a couple of gas stations stayed open to fuel the cars and trucks of those leaving town.

Frank Buchiere, who has lived in Orting for 22 years, said he was not evacuating.

"I have nowhere to go," he said. Buchiere lives in the southeast part of town, which is older and on higher ground.

In 1996, there was water up to people's calves on the Puyallup River side of town. Buchiere said he moved to his neighborhood to get to a higher part of town.

A neighbor, Robin Martin, sent her two children to stay with their dad on high ground. She stayed behind with the German shepherd and the goat.