Highway 20 closures leave valley with only one way in and out

WSDOT working to keep Hwy 153 open while repairs made

By Ann McCreary

For brief periods earlier this month, the Methow Valley was left with no way in or out after mudslides and flooding made highways impassable.

The valley was isolated only temporarily, but access remains problematic with Highway 20 buried under snow over the North Cascades and under extensive repairs over Loup Loup Pass for several weeks.

That leaves Highway 153, which was proven vulnerable to road-closing slides during recent rainstorms, as the valley’s only access for the time being.

The Highway 153 detour means longer travel times for people who need to go to the Okanogan Valley, and has prompted local emergency responders to plan for dealing with restricted access.

The Methow Valley and many areas of Okanogan County are especially vulnerable to flooding and mudslides because soils are already saturated from a very wet winter, recent rains, and runoff from snowmelt. With so much land burned by wildfires in past years, the risk of debris flows is heightened.

Crews are beginning work to repair water damage to Highway 20 and reopen the road. While that highway is closed, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is “battling to keep 153 open so people can get out,” said Don Becker, WSDOT maintenance supervisor in Twisp.

“We are working on it every day” to make sure culverts in problem spots that have had slides and flooding in the past are clear of debris that could cause more flooding and damage during future storms, Becker said.

Areas of concern along Highway 153 include milepost 3 at the lower end of the valley, where the road was temporarily closed by mudslides on the morning of April 7 and was restricted to only one lane of traffic for another day.

Leecher Creek, about 6 miles south of Twisp, has flooded several times in recent years. WSDOT had a contractor with heavy equipment working at the site when the rains hit on April 7, and that prevented another major slide there, said Kirk Berg, WSDOT assistant regional administrator for maintenance.

“That saved 153,” said Berg.

Extensive damage

Highway 20 is extensively damaged in two locations. On the Methow Valley side of Loup Loup summit the road is closed to all except local traffic at milepost 207, at the intersection of Upper Beaver Creek, 5 miles east of Twisp.

At milepost 211 the road is closed to all traffic because the pavement is shifting down the hillside, said Maurice Goodall, director of Okanogan County Emergency Management.

Runoff from a draw above the road plugged a culvert and water has pooled on the north side of the road.

“Water started rising behind the plugged culvert and began seeping through fill under the road base,” Goodall said. The road base got saturated, the road surface began cracking and the south face of the highway slid, Goodall said. About 500 feet of roadway is affected, he said.

 Before work to repair the damage can begin, the pooled water must be removed. The water is not draining by itself, other than seeping through the base of the roadway, he said.

Crews from KRCI Construction of Wenatchee, hired on an emergency basis to do the Highway 20 repairs, began running pumps that draw 800 gallons per minute last Friday to pump the water into Fraser Creek, Goodall said.

The pumps were barely dropping the water level, he said. “There is quite a bit of water still flowing through the draw,” he said.

Five houses are located east of the damaged area, and Goodall worked with residents last week to stage cars on both sides of the washout before the road deteriorated further.

That will allow residents to walk through the construction zone to cars on the Twisp side, and they will have cars on the other side to drive to their homes.

“There are going to be some points where it’s going to be difficult” to walk through the construction area while the road is being repaired, he said.

Goodall had no estimate of when the repairs to the road at milepost 211 would be completed. “This area is much larger than the damage which occurred at mile post 221 east of the Loup,” he said.

A portion of Highway 20 near milepost 221, 7 miles east of the summit, was damaged by mudflows brought down by storms over the weekend of April 7-9.

A natural dam of downed trees and underbrush formed above the highway over the past few years since the Carlton Complex Fire of 2014, said Dan Lewis, WSDOT project engineer.

With the heavy rains, the dam gave way, unleashing the pond behind it and sending a slurry of mud and debris toward the highway, where a plugged culvert and supersaturated ground contributed to a slide that created a 30-foot deep hole and left a stretch of pavement suspended over the gap with little support, Lewis said.

“Some of it [the road] is just hanging in the air,” he said last week at a meeting of the Winthrop Chamber of Commerce.

The highway will need to be completely rebuilt with a new drainage system to carry water away from the road, Lewis said.

He could not predict how long the repairs at milepost 221 would take, although WSDOT spokesman Jeff Adamson said last week that it would likely require “at least three weeks.”

Lewis said this week that another major mudslide occurred on Monday (April 17) not far from the first one. A huge swath of mud, rocks and large trees rumbled down over the road at milepost 221.4, he said. But the material went over the road rather than undermining it, he said, so the pavement didn’t suffer major damage. The contractor has unplugged a culvert at the site twice this week, he said.

Altogether, Lewis said, there are at least eight sites on Highway 20 where slides or flooding have blocked or damaged the road, and more are expected. “It continues to grow and changes daily,” he said.

Meanwhile, clearing snow from Highway 20 over the North Cascades is continuing, but mountain snowfall during the past two weeks has complicated that effort as well, said Becker.

Crews have made it to the first avalanche chute below Cutthroat Ridge, but “we’ve had to plow the road to get to where we are working,” he said.

He said the goal is still to open the road by June 1, which will be one of the latest openings ever for the highway. 

Planning for the worst

With only one road open, emergency responders including Aero Methow Rescue Service and local law enforcement are well aware of the potential for the valley getting cut off entirely during a strong storm.

That is a scenario that has been considered in planning for disasters, said Cindy Button, Aero Methow director of services.

Having worked in the valley as a paramedic since 1984, Button said she could recall several occasions when two roads were impacted during wildfires, mudslides or bridge problems. But this month was the first time she’s ever seen all three roads closed at the same time, Button said.

 “We always run scenarios, but thought the likelihood of losing all three roads is pretty slim. Now we know that’s not true,” Button said.

As a result of the slides that briefly isolated the valley earlier this month, Aero Methow began planning for a possible repeat.

“We have lots of plans,” said Button.

If all roads were closed, emergency evacuations of patients could be possible by air ambulance through Lifeflight, but that option can be limited by poor visibility, Button said.

If roads were not officially closed but the conditions were uncertain, a pilot car would lead the ambulance to make sure the roads were passable, she said.

Aero Methow also made plans to provide emergency medical care to people in the valley. Confluence Health Clinic in Winthrop offered to staff the clinic after hours if necessary, Button said. 

Medical care is also available through a group called Methow Valley Health Care Providers, which includes physicians who are working or retired, or have second homes here.

A member canvassed others in the group last week and found seven physicians in the valley who were available to respond if needed, Button said.

Patients who need to leave the valley regularly for kidney dialysis or other medical care, or women with high-risk pregnancies are advised to find a place to stay outside the valley if it appears there is a risk of roads closing, she said.

Aero Methow also made preparations by contacting the Red Cross; making sure there was adequate fuel for vehicles and generators; making sure that oxygen supplies were fully stocked; moving a trailer to Twisp that is prepared to respond to multiple casualties; and purchasing extra water for ambulance crews.

Twisp Police Chief Paul Budrow said the response time for Okanogan County sheriff’s deputies to calls in the valley will be increased as a result of the Highway 20 closure, and his office is receiving more calls from the sheriff to assist.

“They’re into a two-hour drive,” he said.

Any arrests that Twisp police make will also require more time to transport offenders to the county jail in Okanogan, he noted. “It’s doubling our time. It costs money in the fact that we’re going to be driving further … and it will cost the town in the fact that I won’t be here.”

Budrow said he has adjusted his department policies to allow his newest officer, Stephen Purtell, to transport people who are arrested on his own. Purtell is an officer in training and would normally make those transports with another officer, Budrow said.

Budrow said the valley’s isolation during the recent floods illustrates why Twisp is working to build a new civic building, which would be designed to serve as an emergency operations center for the entire valley during disasters.

“It would help to have an off-site emergency operations center” that could accommodate county officials and others involved in disaster management, he said.

Inconveniences for many

For most people, having only one route open into and out of the Methow Valley is more of an inconvenience than a disaster.

People who regularly drive to the Okanogan Valley for work or other business need to plan on more time and more fuel costs as a result.

TranGO, which provides public transportation, has added an express connection between Pateros and the Okanogan/Omak area.

Methow Valley residents can take the regular route from Twisp to Pateros, the transfer to the express route to Okanogan and Omak. TranGO planned an additional run between Pateros and Twisp to accommodate the return transfer trips.

TranGO also has a 10-passenger van available for a vanpool, and access to additional vans for working commuters.

Among those affected by Highway 20’s long-term closure are Liberty Bell High School athletic teams traveling to competitions beyond the Pateros/Brewster area. For more information about the impact on schools, see page B1.

While WSDOT works to fix road damage throughout Okanogan County and elsewhere around the state, the department is confronted by another challenge — money.

Berg said WSDOT’s statewide biennial allocation for handling ice and snow removal is $8.4 million over budget. WSDOT is hoping that the state Legislature will provide some emergency funding before it adjourns, he said.

Otherwise, Berg said. “we just don’t have the money” for the extra expenditures.