Chehalis River Area
On December 3rd, a trio of storms battered Western Washington with snow, strong winds followed by intense rainfall. Shortly after, DNR Geologists from the Division of Geology and Earth Resources and the Division of Forest Practices jointly began documenting landslides. It is crucial after landslide events, such as the December 1st-3rd storms, to document landslides and its losses, as this data is perishable. Landslides are quickly moved from roads and are often modified and stabilized, destroying critical data used to analyze the triggers for the event. Further, Western Washington has an ideal climate for vegetative growth and landslides can quickly revegetate, covering data necessary to analyze the event. These landslides are entered into a statewide GIS landslide database and will be available on this website shortly. Landslide processes were grouped in accordance to the Washington Geologic Surveys landslide database. Shallow landslides are split into shallow undifferentiated, debris flow, debris slide (which includes debris avalanches and shallow colluvial), hyperconcentrated flows and block falls and topples. Deep-seated landslides are split into lateral spreads, general deep-seated, earthflows, translational, rotational, composite and megalandslides/sturzstroms. During this event, the most common landslides observed are debris slides, many of which transformed into debris flows, and road blowouts (we are considering these debris slides, flows or shallow rapids, depending on the blowout). Three reconnaissance flights were conducted in this area; however, only the first flight data is available at this time. DNR personnel are diligently processing the data and preparing it for the website. Please check back soon for updated material.
Stowe Creek Area | Murphy's Hole Area | Crim Creek Area
Stowe Creek Area | Murphy's Hole Area | Crim Creek Area