It's been two weeks since that severe thunderstorm that hit the area, and caused the closure of a 24-mile stretch of Highway Two from Waterville to Coulee City. A mudslide near Farmer destroyed large chunks of the roadway and caused that closure, and now the state is getting into the act. Governor Jay Inslee has issued an emergency proclamation to activate state resources to assist with recovery efforts.
A statement from the Governor's office reads, and we quote, “The Washington State Military Department has activated the State Emergency Operations Center to implement emergency response procedures and is coordinating resources to support local officials in alleviating the immediate impacts.”
But it's going to take a while to get the roadway open again. The state Department of Transportation has retained Hurst Construction of East Wenatchee to repair the roadway, and work on that project started last Thursday. DT Spokesperson Lauren Loebsack says Hurst has thirty days to finish the repairs under an emergency contract, and they've got a lot to do:
With that closure, and a closure on I-90 due to a fire near Vantage, that has put a crimp in cross-state travel, with the only totally open cross-state routes being State Route 20 to the north, and State Route 17 to the south.