Interstate 5 in Bellingham opened about 3 p.m. Sunday after a 10-hour closure when a landslide triggered by torrential rain blocked the freeway.
Northbound I-5 was closed at Iowa Street and the southbound lanes were partly blocked, Trooper Kelsey Harding of the Washington State Patrol tweeted at 5:19 a.m. Sunday.
“Detours are being set in place, expect delays if you’re going through the area. There is currently no eta on the road reopening. Please be patient as crews work to clear the road,” Harding said.
Bellingham Fire Capt. Dustin Michaelis told The Bellingham Herald that a passenger car and a semi-truck were trapped by mud, rock and trees that swept onto the freeway when a piece of carpet padding blocked a culvert above the road.
No Injuries were reported, Michaelis said in a phone interview.
“Our crews were able to dig out the passenger vehicle” but the semi remained stuck, he said.
“It was a busy night for our crews” as they responded to 911 calls for water in basements and over roadways, Michaelis said.
“A car was stuck in water at the Iowa Street off-ramp,” a low-lying spot that frequently floods in heavy rain, he said.
Meanwhile, the Washington State Department of Transportation sent crews to clear debris from the road, including heavy machinery, according to a tweet.
“Our geotechs have also been called for further assessment of the area,” WSDOT said.
Michaelis said that the Bellingham Public Works Department sent an engineer to help evaluate the condition of the slide and a retaining wall.
Motorists were diverted from the freeway onto city streets and and traffic was heavy in downtown and surrounding area, complicated by streets that were closed because of standing water.
“The amount of rain we received this weekend is causing roadways across town to flood. Please use extreme caution if you must drive today,” Bellingham Police posted on social media at 7:20 a.m.
National Weather Services records at the airport showed 2.2 inches of rain fell in a thundering deluge from 1 a.m. to 4:53 a.m., breaking the rainfall total of 1.75 inches for Oct. 27 set in 1985.
Meteorologist Logan Howard at the National Weather Service in Seattle told The Herald that rain will continue throughout Sunday, with additional drenching rain squalls possible.
“It was pretty heavy (rain). Almost all of that fell after 1 in the morning,” Howard said.
