PACIFIC, Wash. — Water is still flowing over the levee in Pacific, but the barrier that breached Tuesday is holding water, according to mayor Vic Kave.
Kave said it’s how long that the barriers had to hold water that led to the failure.
“They held up for the worst part of the rain, the water levels were much higher for the peak of the event,” Kave said. “If it had failed, then we would’ve had much further damange”
Kave says the point of the breach started as a trickle in between the top and bottom layer of the HESCO barrier. In less than a minute, it turned in the size of a firehouse.
Sandbags have now been put between the upper and lower levels of the HESCO barriers that have been in place since 2009. A second layer of HESCOs are currently being constructed on the outside to reinforce the barrier and catch any other potential breach.
“It’s not a long-term plan, but a short-term solution through the winter,” Kave said.
KIRO 7 spoke to Kave as he toured our crews behind the barrier. Sand bags plugged a 20-foot-wide gash in the levee that Kave says initially pooled up Pacific City Park with water.
“That night we started rebuilding the burm. We had a scour of the old dike that was six feet depp, pouring water into the park.” Kave said.
The problem—there was no outlet for the water, so they’ve since dug a channel at the south end of the park allowing water to drain. Kave says the water is around 8 inches lower than it was on Wednesday.
“It used to be the river was lower than the park, but the sediment infill has built it up to the point that the old levee used to be eight feet down to the river,” Kave said.
Kave thinks sediment that has flowed down from where the White River starts in the Emmons Glacier on Mount Rainier is raising the floor of the river.
Kave said a permanent structure needs to be created to replace the HESCO barriers that were put in place after the 2009 floods.
“It has to be a two-part solution,” Kave said. “One would be a barrier that can contain the water and create capacity and then come up with a dredging plan.”