The Quinault Indian Nation and its reservation in northern Grays Harbor County received limited damage and flooding from torrential rains that had impacted the region and left the Harbor innundated with water and digging out for two weeks.
More than a foot of rain fell in a 24-hour period in the Quinault area on Sunday through Monday, Jan. 4-5. The tribe issued a Declaration of Emergency on Jan. 5.
“As previously reported, there were numerous landslides, culvert failures and washouts on the Quinault Reservation and since the waters subsided we have been left with a certain amount of road and infrastructure damage,” President Fawn Sharp said. “Our Department of Natural Resources reports that efforts continue to get an accurate assessment of damages caused to forest roads, culverts, forest bridges, transportation systems and other resources. But thus far, those damages appear relatively minor.”
The tribe reported it had suffered the most damage to the Moclips-Olympic Highway, where a portion of the guard rail had been washed out by flooding, exposing the posts keeping the steel barrier up. One lane of traffic was impacted and a contractor later made repairs.
Highway 109 was flooded near Moclips by the Moclips River, leaving commuters of Taholah without a route to work. The flooding has subsided and the highway is open.
Forestry roads — low traffic areas — received some unspecified damage.
The tribal Administrative Complex on the reservation received minor water damage, and while the Queets Wastewater Facility did not experience a breach from the rising Queets River (reaching, by some accounts, 70,000 cubic feet per second), a tribal status report recommended moving the facility before another storm hit the area.
“I wish to commend everyone who stepped forward and helped when help was needed. Without them it could have been much worse,” Sharp said.
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