Russ Hiner had just started what was supposed to be a long weekend with his family at the Neskowin Creek RV Resort when he was abruptly awakened early Friday to the sounds of shouting and car horns blaring.
“Somebody rolled through, banging on doors, telling everyone we needed to get out,” Hiner told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I looked outside and there was probably 6 or 7 inches of standing water.”
The RV park, situated between two creeks on U.S. 101 in Tillamook County, had to be evacuated as an atmospheric river of moisture continued to soak Northwest Oregon, causing flooding in some places and landslides in others.
The U.S. Coast Guard was sending two helicopters and a rescue swimmer to help evacuate those remaining in the park, said spokesperson Lt. Steve Nolan. He said no one has been reported hurt in the RV park flooding.
About 50 people were forced to flee the park, Nolan said, and the evacuees would be taken to Neskowin Valley School for assessment. By Friday afternoon, the Coast Guard had helped rescue 12 people from the park along with three dogs. Another eight people were rescued by other agencies, and about 30 people chose to remain in the park, officials said.
About 50 people were evacuated from an RV park near the Oregon coast on Friday as heavy rains soaked the region.
Hiner, a 43-year-old resident of Sequim, Washington, said most of the people staying at the RV park got out without problems, aided by park staff and local firefighters, though he noted that several RVs were still in the park when he got out. It was unclear if any of those vehicles were occupied.
“It was to the bottom of the axles when we woke up, and it was another 2 inches higher by the time we packed up and left,” Hiner said. “The whole sewage system was underwater, so there was an aroma.”
The downpour also caused an 11-hour sewer overflow Friday morning in the Willamette River. Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services issued an advisory Saturday urging people to avoid contact with the river after heavy rains caused an unknown amount of sewage to leak into the water.
The advisory, which expires at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, recommends people not to touch the river downstream of the Ross Island Bridge due to the presence of increased bacteria in the water.
Elsewhere, a landslide shut down Slick Rock Creek Road off Oregon 18 in Lincoln County, though officials said they expected the road to reopen by early Friday afternoon. The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office also reported flooding in the community of Otis and near Devil’s Lake east of Lincoln City.
“Travel is not recommended for vehicles with low ground clearance,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. “Watch your speed through the flood zones, your vehicle won’t appreciate getting water in places it wasn’t designed to go.”
Flooding also forced the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to close some state park sites on the coast Friday. Fogarty Creek State Recreation Area in Depoe Bay and the campground at Devil’s Lake State Recreation Area in Lincoln City both closed. The campground is expected to remain closed until at least Nov. 19, the parks department said.
Ecola State Park in Cannon Beach also closed Friday, after a sinkhole developed in the entrance road into the park. It’s not the first time winter storms have damaged the entrance road, which has closed off and on for years.
In the Willamette Valley, flooding closed the entrance road to Willamette Mission State Park north of Salem, though the park remained open and accessible via a bike path and other trails.
Flooding also plagued the Columbia River Gorge. U.S. Forest Service officials on Friday closed the access road to the Eagle Creek Trailhead as well as Multnomah Falls, where a walkway between the waterfall and the Interstate 84 parking lot was underwater.
On the southern coast, a rockslide spilled an estimated 7,000 cubic yards onto Oregon 138 West near Elkton. The highway was expected to remain closed until Tuesday, officials said.
A rockslide on Oregon 138 in the southern part of the state left some 7,000 cubic yards of debris on a local roadway.
The series of storms that have pummeled the state with several inches of rain since Wednesday were expected to taper off by Friday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
-- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale
Jamie Hale of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
A Fanno Creek Trail footbridge is nearly submerged near Southwest Tiedeman Avenue in Tigard on Friday, Nov. 12, 2021.Pete Lesage