GRANITE FALLS, Wash. — A Granite Falls couple hasn't been able to get to their home in nearly a month and a half, and they blame the Forest Service.
Twenty-one miles from Granite Falls on Mountain Loop Highway—you could call River Road the road to nowhere, but Rich White always liked it that way.
Until now.
"This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me, I ain't kidding you. This is terrible,” Rich told us, standing at the edge of washed-out River Road.
Rich White hasn’t been to his Snohomish Co. home in over a month—after storm damage blocked his road making it...
Posted by KIRO 7 News on Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Rich and his wife are the only full-time residents off the road that now literally goes nowhere—not even to their house.
They haven't been home in a month and a half.
"It started Halloween day and then it was about two weeks later there was a major storm on a Tuesday night that took this end out,” he explained, pointing to the side of the road. “And then about two weeks ago or a week after that it took that end out,” he continued, pointing to the other side.
In between is a huge drop-off with a bridge just sitting in the riverbed.
Rich is talking about rain—lots of it, all going in the wrong place.
The problem is really the road.
It used to extend all the way to the bridge, but when logs kept the water from flowing under the bridge, it was forced to go around, eroding the road on both sides.
River Road is also Forest Service Road 4037, so it's the Forest Service's mess.
“I've talked to them 10 times at least. I tried to get them to come do it before it got like this,” Rich said, pointing again to the useless bridge.
But now the Forest Service can't afford a fix.
"That's the problem, our budgets are severely limited. Our ability to respond, that's limited as a result of the lack of money," explained Peter Forbes with the Darrington Ranger District.
Last month's storm caused at least $1.8 million in damage to the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest alone, and the Forest Service is in the process of applying for federal dollars to make repairs to the Gordon Creek crossing, but the timeline is shaky at best.
"I can't tell you how much time for the temporary fix, but the long-term fix, that's going to take a year or two,” Forbes said.
In the meantime Rich and his wife are living in a van on a friend's property. That's the only option they have until the road to nowhere goes somewhere.
“I can't get any more frustrated. Every time I drive up here and look at this I get nauseous,” Rich concluded.
The Forest Service said it is working with the county to try to get the Whites into temporary housing, but that hasn't happened yet.
KIRO
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