Hundreds Left Stranded, Three Homes Lost in Sudden Storm

The gentleman’s agreement between rivers and land took a turn on the Mountain.

A combination of eerily high temperatures and torrential rains in mid-January unleashed a devastating flood event on the community.

Miraculously, no lives were lost. But hundreds were stranded and three
houses succumbed to the raging waters.

“It was all about neighbors helping neighbors,” said Don Mench, who lives on
Lolo Pass Road which was hit the hardest by the flooding of the Sandy and
Zigzag rivers. “We did some shuttling and had neighbors parking at our
place.”

Meteorologists claimed the heavy rainfall and melting snow were the culprits
in sending torrents of water through the Sandy, Zigzag and Salmon rivers.
More than 200 people were left without electricity, water or telephone service,
and formed a human chain seeking supplies and relief as they trekked up and
down Lolo Pass Road.

Over the weekend of Jan. 15-16, the National Weather Service reported that
9.51 inches of rain fell at Timberline – an unheard of amount for January. This
resulted in an estimated snow melt of 17 inches during the same period,
spurring the rivers to overflow and seek new courses down the mountain.
The Hoodland Fire District responded quickly, setting up emergency
operations and an evacuation center, and dispatching volunteers for
sandbagging. Stranded victims were taken in at the Mt. Hood Lions Club and
the Resort at the Mountain provided emergency lodging.

Sandy Ault showed up at 6:30 p.m., Jan. 16, at the Lions Club, having
returned from work and unable to reach her house on Pin-ewood Lane, up
Lolo Pass.

“I can’t get home,’ Ault said. “My husband and two dogs are at the house.
Hopefully, they know what to do. I can’t reach them, the phone line is dead.”
When Ault left for work that morning there was water pouring over the road.
“I wondered if I’d be able to get home,” she said. “Now, I know.”

Ault kept her best face on the difficult situation.

“I’ve always thought I had a charmed life,” she said. “I either have to cry or
laugh, but I don’t like my eyes getting messy, so ...”

When the Sandy River jumped its banks a section of Lolo Pass Road above
Barlow Trail went down, cutting off residents. Tim Heider, public information
officer for Clackamas County, was at the Hoodland Fire Station filling in, and
reported that by Monday, Jan. 17, the problems spiked when the bridge over
the Zigzag River was closed to traffic due to safety concerns.

Gertrude’s Cabin, a wilderness icon on Lolo Pass Road since 1929, was swept
away by the Sandy River.

Dan Johnson and his wife Liz Bounds, of Beaverton, had owned the cabin for
10 years and used it as a vacation home and occasionally rented it out.
“I feared for the worse before I got there, then I saw where Gertrude used to
sit,” Johnson said.

“The pump house is still there. There’s nothing of the cabin. It’s like river
bottom. No remains.”

“It feels like death,” Bounds said.

There were guests at the cabin Saturday, Jan. 15, who notified the owners
that the river was lapping up to the hot tub. They left immediately.
Johnson reflected on the loss.

“We treated her well,” he said, of the cabin. “Everything was era and we kept
Gertrude’s spirit alive. Six houses like her (upriver) had been lost over the
years to floods. But she remained, survived them all. But not this one. Mother
Nature has her way. It’s a wild river, and it was a perfect storm.”

Maybe too perfect.