Milton, Edgewood step up in winter flooding event

Photo by meghan erkkinen

ONE AREA SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACTED BY FLOODING WAS THIS SECTION OF 5TH AVENUE IN MILTON.

As the Puyallup River surged and many Fife residents fled their low-lying homes, Milton and Edgewood fared relatively well in the face of flooding Jan. 7 and 8.

Water over roadways, mudslides and drainage issues were some of the biggest hurdles for the cities to tackle over the few days where heavy rain caused some evacuations in nearby cities such as Fife, Puyallup, and Sumner.

In Milton, the worst flooding occurred near 5th Avenue, where two homes stood a couple feet deep in water. The road was closed while the water drained. At the nearby Autumn Village Apartments, the parking lot filled with water, but the buildings remained undisturbed.

The areas that flooded this year have seen flooding in the past, according to Milton Mayor Katrina Asay.

“In severity it was worse (than previous years) but it was still the same area,” she said. “Our stormwater plans are working.”

Asay called on city employees to monitor water levels and take appropriate action. A water line near Highway 99 was threatened for a short period during the rainy weather, but remained intact.

Edgewood also “fared pretty well” during the recent storms and flooding in the area, according to city officials.

“That amount of rain really impacts everyone to some degree,” said City Manager Kim Wilde. “It impacted us in various ways, thankfully not the degree that some of our neighbors had to deal with.”

Mudslides along Jovita Boulevard forced the city to close the road for nearly two days, and smaller slides along Meridian Avenue and 25th Street East near Mortenson Farm also caused lane and road closures for some time.

Edgewood Police Chief Ed Knutson noted that the road closures caused problems for drivers and traffic, but the city had the best interest of the community in mind.

“We had to keep people safe,” he said.

Edgewood does not have its own maintenance crew, and Wilde noted Pierce County road crews, whom the city is contracted with, did a “great job” getting roadways cleared and drainage issues under wraps.

And while Edgewood remained fairly untouched to private property issues, Wilde said city staff is still working on calculating all damages.

One area, Cherry Wood mobile home park, was encouraged to evacuate because of its proximity to Fife.

Higher up the hill, Surprise Lake Middle School and area churches opened their doors to evacuees from Fife, Puyallup and other low-lying areas, and community members stepped up to help out.

Edgewood Community Church hosted about 100 people – most of them evacuees from a retirement home in the Puyallup Valley – overnight, setting up cots from King County’s Office of Emergency Management and serving warm meals. Volunteers came from several area churches to help out.

“Our first priority was to make them calm and reassure them we would take care of them,” said volunteer Penny Lent. “There were a few that were crying…a few of them were scared.”

But eventually, evacuees settled in.

“It was really great,” Lent said. “It was a community service project because people came from all these other services.”

Mountain View Lutheran Church also opened its doors as shelter for evacuees from the surrounding communities.

Both churches, which partner with Pierce County and the Red Cross, respectively, had been preparing to open as a shelter for natural disaster situations over the course of the past year.

About 20 evacuees also spent the night at Surprise Lake Middle School, where Cub Scouts and city of Fife staff provided food and entertainment.

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