Some roads 'disappearing'

The good news on Monday was that the Spokane County Public Works Department hadn't added any area roadways to its list of closures over the weekend.

The bad news that with more rain in the forecast, the chances that will change and the list will grow are fair to good.

As of Tuesday, five roads in the West Plains and Marshall areas remained closed because of either water over the road surface, damage to the road itself or both. In Cheney, Betz Road east of State Route 904 to Andrus Road was closed while west of the city and north of SR 904, Cameron Road remained closed from Ritchey to Culver roads and Graham Road was closed north from Salnave Road to its dead end and south of Salnave to Baker Road.

Further west on SR 904, Pine Springs Road south of Tyler was closed from Lance Hill to Carman Roads. Between Cheney and SR 195 just east of Curtis Road, Aspen Meadows remained closed in the loop between either end of Lois Drive.

The county was watching Ritchey Road between Baker and Cameron, and Spotted Road north of Hallett to Westbow Road. Spokane County's public works information and outreach manager Martha Lou Wheatley-Billeter said these roads were being watched because of instability in places.

Early Tuesday afternoon, the county closed Columbia Basin Highway from Pine Springs Road to the Lincoln County line due to "deep water over the roadway."

Other areas, such as at Williams and Badger lakes, are flooded. When the county experienced its first flooding emergency in February, Wheatley-Billeter said the issue was water over the roadways caused by the rapidly melting snow pack and accompanying rain. That snow pack is gone, saturating the ground leading to the current emergency.

"Now, we have roads disappearing," Wheatley-Billeter said. "The water is looking for places to go, and it's taking the ground with it."

In some areas there's no place for the water to go, leading to standing water on roadways, such as the conditions on Cheney-Spokane Road near Fish Lake. Wheatley-Billeter urged drivers to be cautious when approaching water over the roadways, and particularly if driving rural roads, especially at night.

While county crews have been out checking roadways and bridges for damage, they can't get to all areas and in some cases, conditions may deteriorate in areas already inspected. Wheatley-Billeter also urged people to stay out of the Spokane River and associated streams, despite the temptation to do any whitewater rafting.

With meteorologists forecasting one of the wettest springs on record, Wheatley-Billeter added that it will likely be some time before county crews can begin to make repairs and patches.

The county has submitted monetary damage estimates to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in order to receive disaster assistance to facilitate repair work, but Wheatley-Billeter said there's no guarantee how much they will receive, and how far that will go.

"We're already over the maintenance budget," she said. "And when you talk about permanent repairs, we're already at $9 million and climbing."

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].