35-Ft Waves for Oregon Coast, More Flooding; Wild Storm Video

Published 12/11/2015 at 4:43 AM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast) – UPDATE: See the Latest on Warnings: End in Sight for Oregon Coast Flooding; More Warnings for Saturday After two days of being periodically ripped apart, the north Oregon coast is in for more flooding, and likely the central coast too. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Portland has issued yet another flood warning for both parts of the upper half of the coastline, and predicting wave height well over 30 feet on Friday. (Above: flooding in Nehalem, photo Julee Ward).

The flood warning and high surf warnings are in effect until 4 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, another wet and windy system moves in, but the NWS has so far not declared this to be problematic.

All of Tillamook County is still reeling from destructive flooding, significant road and slide damage, and still more winds that hit the area early on Thursday. Towns like Rockaway Beach, Garibaldi, Wheeler, Nehalem and Manzanita were completely cut off from each other. Parts of Seaside in Clatsop County were also underwater.

Friday will see a high tide of around ten feet, coupled with storm surges that are expected to create breakers as high as 35 feet. Early morning hours already saw seas up to 40 feet high.

This tidal overflow will create surges into estuaries and bays. The NWS said river flows will be high due to recent rainfall, and flooding is likely.

“Flooding of low lying areas and roads prone to tidal flooding can be expected an hour or two before and after the high tides,” the NWS said. “The greatest impacts will be between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.”

As many of these waters are receding and finally opening up roads, there is likely still more road shutdowns to deal with. Numerous homes had to be evacuated in Tillamook County, and residents say this was the worst they've seen it since the great floods of '96, while many maintain it was actually worse.

Below, you can see video of the startling devastation to roads and some of the flooding.

According to the Tillamook County Pioneer, some roads are open again as of late Thursday afternoon, including Highway 101 into Nehalem, between Rockaway Beach and Barview, most of Tillamook, Highway 6, and limited local access for Oceanside and Cape Meares residents.

The Tillamook County website said most roads going in and out of Netarts, Bay City and Tillamook are still open. More road updates can be found there.

However, Wheeler is still closed off at the southern end.

Several roads are permanently damaged, but local authorities expect most will be open soon to one-lane traffic. Many will have to be rebuilt, according to ODOT and the Tillamook County Pioneer.

Lucky for the central Oregon coast, towns like Lincoln City, Depoe Bay and Yachats dodged major issues. However, some spectacular and unusual wave action was caught on video, including one incident where an access in Lincoln City's Nelscott district had waves so massive they reached the seawall of this otherwise normally broad beach. Breakers were large enough to actually fired off into the air. See below.

90 mph winds in Rocakway

Lincoln City wild waves

Mohler, near Nehalem

Flooding on the central Oregon coast, Beverly Beach

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