These Whatcom roads remain closed after 2 inches of rain in two days
As rains eased Tuesday, Feb. 2, Slater Road was reopened west of Interstate 5, along with dozens of other Whatcom County roads that were closed or restricted because of water on the pavement.
Water remained over the roadway on Slater Road south of Ferndale and a 5 mph speed limit was posted, said Marie Duckworth, spokeswoman for the county Public Works Department.
A two-day downpour caused ditches and culverts to swell, and water and debris to pool over rural roads on the anniversary of the 2020 Super Bowl weekend flood that inundated Sumas, Everson and Nooksack.
Widespread flooding was not a concern this year, however, even though more than 2 inches of rain fell over two days at Bellingham International Airport, according to data from the National Weather Service and the Northwest River Forecast Center.
“All forks of the Nooksack River have peaked and are either leveled off or beginning to drop, which will continue throughout the day,” the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management said in a statement Tuesday.
Affected roads will remain closed until they are safe for drivers, Duckworth said.
“That can take longer and be very much independent of river levels,” because pooled water must be absorbed into the ground, she told The Bellingham Herald in an interview.
Soils remain saturated from rain, even as water levels in the Nooksack and local creeks are falling, she said.
“If we were to reopen (Slater) now, there’s a very real possibility that we’d have to close it again shortly thereafter,” Duckworth said earlier Tuesday.
Slater Road was closed between the Ferndale city limits at the BNSF Railway crossing and Ferndale Road, said Gina Miller, assistant superintendent of Public works maintenance and operations.
“Crews will monitor the situation and open the roadway as soon as it is safe to do so,” Miller told The Herald in an email.
Rainfall of .94 inches on Monday broke the record for the date of .55 inches in 1982.
Sunday’s rainfall of 1.3 inches just missed the record of 1.34 inches from 2020.
Rain was expected to ease overnight Tuesday, with partly sunny skies forecast by Wednesday afternoon with a high of 47 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.
More than two dozen other roads had closures or limits because of water or debris, according to the Public Works website. They include Lake Whatcom Boulevard, Marine Drive and Hemmi Road.
County officials installed five gates similar to the one closing Slater Road last year, Duckworth said.
Dozens or motorists were stranded or had to be rescued because they ignored temporary barricades or closure signs during several days of flooding in early February 2020, according to The Bellingham Herald archive.
Damage from the Super Bowl Flood in late January and early February 2020 caused some $3.5 million in damage, said John Gargett, deputy director of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management.
Those storms were part of a tropical atmospheric river that also drenched the North Cascades with rain, causing snowmelt and runoff that engorged the Nooksack River.
More than 2 feet of snow fell over the weekend at the Mt. Baker Ski Area, and the Northwest Avalanche Center said avalanche danger was high in the Mount Baker wilderness backcountry.
This story was originally published February 1, 2021 at 2:36 PM.
