Selah Flooding Force Residents to Evacuate

Tools

Story Published: Jan 8, 2009 at 7:09 PM PST

By Audrey Asistio

Watch the story
SELAH -- A handful of Selah residents evacuated their homes, after Yakima River reached flood stage Thursday morning.

Resident Reney Lange was shocked. She says, "What do you do? What do you grab? And first thing was the animals. There's some farm animals over there. We got those out last night and today, we just emptied out a storage shed and wait and see."

Lange helped her mother-in-law move out of her home last night. She was the first firefighters asked to evacuate. Neighbors were barricading their homes with mud and moving out their valuables all day. Thursday morning, the Yakima River rose above flood stage at close to 18-feet high. People in this area are used to minor flooding, but they say they have never seen anything like it.

"It's crazy! It's unreal watching the water rising. How much higher is it gonna rise? Especially because it wasn't supposed to rise!” Lange says.

Firefighters are monitoring the water and are making sure people stay safe. They were just as shocked.

Selah Fire Chief Jerry Davis tells Action News, "This is the worst since 1996 and we don't know where it's gonna end yet."

No one is sure where it will end, so no one is taking any chances. People living in flood plains are hitting higher ground.

Upload directly from your mobile device.

Learn how

YouNews

This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.

On Demand

Resources and info you need to prepare for the switch to DTV.

Stay Connected