Evacuations Under Way in Oregon Town as Death Toll Rises to 5- National Guard troops evacuated residents in a flooded town Tuesday and tens of thousands of residents remained without power after back-to-back storms pounded the Pacific Northwest, killing five people.
Troops with the Oregon Air National Guard used inflatable rafts to evacuate flooded residents in Vernonia, a mountain timber town on the Nehalem River, about 35 miles northwest of Portland.
The storm that hit Monday smacked the region with hurricane-force winds and several inches of rain, and was blamed for five deaths in Oregon and Washington state. It came only a day after another severe system moved through Sunday.
Towns on the coast were hit hardest by the storms. Red Cross shelters in western Oregon were housing 556 people as of midnight, said spokeswoman Lise Harwin.
The governors of both Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency, which could speed relief efforts in flood-hit areas. The National Weather Service said 3 to 6 inches of rain had fallen across much of western Washington. The 24-hour rain total for Bremerton, Wash., was 10.78 inches.
I was going to make a joke about how rex prefers to flood his socks himself, but we shouldn't joke about the possibility of him losing his hosery. It always hurts to leave behind the ones you love.
