CENTRALIA, Wash. — A storm that battered the Pacific Northwest for two days moved on Tuesday, leaving behind flooded homes, fallen trees and washed-out roads, including the region’s largest highway, which was covered with 10 feet of muddy water.
The storm, which killed at least five people, lashed the area with high winds and heavy rain and forced authorities to evacuate a flooded Oregon town that was cut off by landslides. Tens of thousands of people were without power.
In Centralia, Wash., police used small boats to evacuate neighborhoods inundated by floodwaters from the Chehalis River that were the consistency of chocolate milk.
Interstate 5, the region’s major north- south thoroughfare, was under water. Although rain eased overnight, runoff continued to feed the river, which crested at record highs, breaking a record from 1996, when flooding closed the freeway for four days.
State officials hoped to reopen the highway Thursday but were waiting to see what damage the flooding might have done.
The storm, the last of three severe weather systems to smack the region, moved into British Columbia on Tuesday and began to dissipate, the National Weather Service said.
The 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.
“It’s pretty devastating, and you can only imagine what it was like for the people trying to get out,” Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said during a tour of the damage. Gregoire declared a state of emergency, as did the Oregon governor.
Coast Guard crews continued to pluck stranded residents from flooded areas. A total of 131 people had been rescued as of Tuesday morning, with at least 40 of them hoisted by a Coast Guard helicopter, said spokeswoman Mandi Ruch in Seattle.
Many schools and government offices were closed for a second day. Mudslides also halted Amtrak passenger service between Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Nearly 75,000 customers lost power in Washington, and more than 50,000 were still without power Tuesday morning, officials said. In Oregon, Portland-based Pacific Power said about 36,000 customers had no electricity.
