(The following report appeared on The Oregonian website on December 5.)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Disrupted Northwest rail and shipping routes crept back online Wednesday, but the West Coast’s main ground-transportation corridor — Interstate 5 — will remain closed at least until this weekend, Washington state transportation officials said.
The Columbia River bar was reopened to traffic, relieving a bottleneck of waiting ships. Commercial rail lines restarted freight traffic, and Amtrak planned to resume passenger service Thursday. Alternative road routes to Puget Sound were unblocked for passenger cars and critical truck traffic.
But by Wednesday evening, some three or four feet of muddy water still covered I-5 at Chehalis, Wash., concealing untold damages.