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Flooding in Pullman/Moscow

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95coug

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Dec 22, 2002
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Apparently Pullman has seen nearly 2.5 inches of rain in the last week, and it’s reached a critical point. Missouri Flat Creek is now flowing down Grand Avenue from Dissmores to the Pufferbelly Depot, and Paradise Creek rose 2 feet in 2 hours today. Apparently happened quickly, there are a few cars still on Grand and people trapped in businesses. There are videos and pictures on Facebook and Instagram.

Of course, WSU is on the hill so it’s not directly impacted. So far classes are on schedule, no word on Mom’s weekend impact...although it seems likely some businesses will be closed.
 
95coug said:
Apparently Pullman has seen nearly 2.5 inches of rain in the last week, and it’s reached a critical point. Missouri Flat Creek is now flowing down Grand Avenue from Dissmores to the Pufferbelly Depot, and Paradise Creek rose 2 feet in 2 hours today. Apparently happened quickly, there are a few cars still on Grand and people trapped in businesses. There are videos and pictures on Facebook and Instagram.

Of course, WSU is on the hill so it’s not directly impacted. So far classes are on schedule, no word on Mom’s weekend impact...although it seems likely some businesses will be closed.
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Brings back some memories of when I was at WSU...eons ago. Same sort of thing happened. We had to go downtown and help a buddy, whose family owned a furniture store (Neill's), move furniture and sandbag around the place. Wild times! Probably 1971, or '72?
 
Wasichus said:
Brings back some memories of when I was at WSU...eons ago. Same sort of thing happened. We had to go downtown and help a buddy, whose family owned a furniture store (Neill's), move furniture and sandbag around the place. Wild times! Probably 1971, or '72?
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Probably ‘72. You were helping brothers Scott or Jim. Downtown was a mess, but yesterday was far worse.
 
Wasichus said:
Brings back some memories of when I was at WSU...eons ago. Same sort of thing happened. We had to go downtown and help a buddy, whose family owned a furniture store (Neill's), move furniture and sandbag around the place. Wild times! Probably 1971, or '72?
Click to expand...
The true downtown area (Main Street) had flooding in '96-'97 too. There was over a foot of snow on the ground, then a Chinook blew through and temperatures were in the 60s two days later. WSU cancelled classes for a day, and word at the time was that it was the first time they'd done that since Mt. St. Helens. Strange thing was that they cancelled the day after flooding crested, when water had already started receding.

Don't know how that one compared to '71-'72 or to last night, but it was pretty impressive at the time. I ended up in Colfax, and the concrete river at the north end of town was nearly overflowing.
 
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Wasichus said:
Brings back some memories of when I was at WSU...eons ago. Same sort of thing happened. We had to go downtown and help a buddy, whose family owned a furniture store (Neill's), move furniture and sandbag around the place. Wild times! Probably 1971, or '72?
Click to expand...

Bad flood in the winter of 95-96 too.
 
95coug said:
The true downtown area (Main Street) had flooding in '96-'97 too. There was over a foot of snow on the ground, then a Chinook blew through and temperatures were in the 60s two days later. WSU cancelled classes for a day, and word at the time was that it was the first time they'd done that since Mt. St. Helens. Strange thing was that they cancelled the day after flooding crested, when water had already started receding.

Don't know how that one compared to '71-'72 or to last night, but it was pretty impressive at the time. I ended up in Colfax, and the concrete river at the north end of town was nearly overflowing.
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They cancelled classes in 83(?) and the Friday before Thanksgiving break in 1985 with maybe 30% of the student body still in town (Apple Cup was in Seattle that year) because it was -14F outdoors.

Pretty stupid cancellation and they made it up on a Saturday before closed week (which meant the last mid-term for some classes was just 7 days before their finals)
 
FnuLnu said:
They cancelled classes in 83(?) and the Friday before Thanksgiving break in 1985 with maybe 30% of the student body still in town (Apple Cup was in Seattle that year) because it was -14F outdoors.

Pretty stupid cancellation and they made it up on a Saturday before closed week (which meant the last mid-term for some classes was just 7 days before their finals)
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The threshold for cancelling is much different now. Pretty sure they closed twice this winter. It’s not as rare as it used to be.
 
This one was pretty unusual, in part because it comes so late in the year. Typically it is as '95 describes, where there is a lot of snow and it warms up and gets rainy. Particularly if the ground was frozen underneath and the rain and snow melt had nowhere to go.

The other unusual is that this was the little creek (Missouri Flat Creek) that comes in from the North past Schweitzer Engineering. I would suspect that the culvert under Stadium Way got clogged with debris and then over the top the water went. I don't believe that the South Fork of the Palouse River proper (which runs through downtown after Paradise Creek joins it from Moscow) jumped its banks. That's what the typical flood does, and that is when downtown gets it.

I think the little creek that flows down the other end of Grand Avenue is Dry Flat Creek. Those two, plus the Palouse, are the "Three Forks" that the town originally was named. Should really have been "Four Forks" since Paradise creek joins in just upstream from the others. Of course it is said that Paradise creek would dry up in the summer if it weren't for the Moscow effluent, etc. discharge.

What's kind of interesting is the the main Palouse River, which goes through Palouse and meets the South Fork in Colfax, often floods at different times than the South Fork - it's source is up in the Moscow-ish mountains, so melting mountain snowpacks can cause it to get high when the Pullman area South Fork and the creeks are just fine.
 
Wasichus said:
Brings back some memories of when I was at WSU...eons ago. Same sort of thing happened. We had to go downtown and help a buddy, whose family owned a furniture store (Neill's), move furniture and sandbag around the place. Wild times! Probably 1971, or '72?
Click to expand...


Fall of 71 there was massive flooding just prior to Thansgiving break. Canoes glided right through town.
 
Does anyone remember the incident in the 1970s when several men tried to raft the flooding Palouse river near Pullman? They didn't realize how low the clearance was on some of those small bridges. The raft got pinned under a bridge, and I believe there were 3 deaths. I must have been in Middle School at the time. My recollection was they were doing it at night, fueled by more then a little alcohol. Does this ring any bells?
 
COCoug said:
Does anyone remember the incident in the 1970s when several men tried to raft the flooding Palouse river near Pullman? They didn't realize how low the clearance was on some of those small bridges. The raft got pinned under a bridge, and I believe there were 3 deaths. I must have been in Middle School at the time. My recollection was they were doing it at night, fueled by more then a little alcohol. Does this ring any bells?
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Yes, I remember that. Not sure if 3 died, but there were death(s).
 
Loyal Coug said:
This one was pretty unusual, in part because it comes so late in the year. Typically it is as '95 describes, where there is a lot of snow and it warms up and gets rainy. Particularly if the ground was frozen underneath and the rain and snow melt had nowhere to go.

The other unusual is that this was the little creek (Missouri Flat Creek) that comes in from the North past Schweitzer Engineering. I would suspect that the culvert under Stadium Way got clogged with debris and then over the top the water went. I don't believe that the South Fork of the Palouse River proper (which runs through downtown after Paradise Creek joins it from Moscow) jumped its banks. That's what the typical flood does, and that is when downtown gets it.

I think the little creek that flows down the other end of Grand Avenue is Dry Flat Creek. Those two, plus the Palouse, are the "Three Forks" that the town originally was named. Should really have been "Four Forks" since Paradise creek joins in just upstream from the others. Of course it is said that Paradise creek would dry up in the summer if it weren't for the Moscow effluent, etc. discharge.

What's kind of interesting is the the main Palouse River, which goes through Palouse and meets the South Fork in Colfax, often floods at different times than the South Fork - it's source is up in the Moscow-ish mountains, so melting mountain snowpacks can cause it to get high when the Pullman area South Fork and the creeks are just fine.
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I had the same thought about the culvert near Dissmores. I saw one video that showed the water was definitely coming over the top there...but also looked like there was flow down Grand north of there already.

The first video I saw was down at the south end of the flow, near Pufferbelly Depot. Looked like it was leaving the road and flowing into the south fork of the Palouse at that point. Seemed a even more backward that the typical source of flooding was this time the outlet that relieved it.

Another thing I’ve wondered about a bit is insurance. Looks like there was significant damage to some places along Grand, maybe even more impact in Moscow. I’m hoping those people are covered for flood damage, otherwise there might be a bunch of vacant storefronts when we all get back this fall.
 
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Generally in E WA the towns are built on at least one river/creek, and often at the confluence of at least 2. Seems like there will be an event every 25-40-ish years that floods the local downtown if not protected by Corps of Engineers levies. Lots of those levies appeared from the mid-50's to thru the early 70's in little towns up and down the Palouse. My little town flooded badly in the late 30's and again in the early 60-s. Then the levies were finished and the flood locations moved downstream, out of town. No major floods in town since that time, but the volume of water when several feet of wet snow meets a heavy rain is something to behold.
 
Yes- Colfax made the decision to go with the cement aquaduct the length of the town. It has been discussed for decades in Pullman, but deemed too ugly. With climate change and the prospect of more frequent flooding, there might be some renewed support. It is shocking to see the Palouse river when it floods, when most of the year you barely even know it exists.
 
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