Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Associated Press Photo Members of the 81st Brigade of the Washington National Guard, left, Pfc. John Larson, and Spc. Sovannaret Son, right, help remove belongings, including a purse, pet rabbits and keepsakes from a home of two women they helped evacuate.

CHEHALIS, Wash. (AP) - The drenching rains and howling winds were gone but flooding concerns persisted Wednesday, as anxious residents waited for waters to recede so they could see what was left after this week's fierce storm.

The storm, which killed at least seven people in the Pacific Northwest before moving on Tuesday, left behind flooded homes, fallen trees and washed-out roads, including the region's largest highway. On Wednesday, the storm continued pushing east, dumping snow across the Midwest, and was blamed for two traffic deaths in Wisconsin.

Some were spending Wednesday looking for the lost. In the Lewis County town of Winlock, a dive team planned to search normally tiny Wallers Creek for Richard Hiatt, 81, believed to have been swept away when a bank gave out from underneath him.

"It happened so quickly," daughter-in-law Sharon Hiatt said Tuesday as searches continued. "That's the only possibility, that he fell into the creek."

At least half of downtown Aberdeen had electricity and Grays Harbor Community Hospital no longer had to rely on emergency generators, said Aberdeen police Detective George J. Kelly. Tens of thousands were without power in Oregon and Washington state at the height of the storm.

National Guard troops were summoned early Wednesday morning to help evacuate a 20-unit trailer park near Elma threatened by the flooding Chehalis River, Kelly said.

Floodwaters about 90 miles west of Seattle were also approaching U.S. Highway 12, a principal link to the Puget Sound area, Kelly said.

As the water started to rise outside their Lewis County home, Terry Roberts moved his cars to higher ground, shepherded his wife and two children into their RV and hit the road. They didn't get far.

"We were on dry road and all of a sudden, the water started swirling around," Roberts said, standing with his wife in a temporary shelter in Chehalis after being rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. "That's when we got on the CB and called for help." Roberts, 64, was among the hundreds who fled their homes after the storm.

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