After More Than a Century of Soaking, Washington Town Mulls Move to Higher Ground

To move this tiny town to higher ground is not such a stretch for the short term. Residents here have done it for years when the big rains have come.

Roll up the rugs. Empty the kitchen cabinets. Put the good furniture on the second floor and hope the river does not rise that high. Then load up the RV and head north of Highway 20 to the church.

“They’re actually getting a little better at this, unfortunately,” said the Rev. Ron Edwards, the pastor of the First Baptist Church and a foul-weather host to many of Hamilton’s refugees.


Most of the about 300 residents of Hamilton repeated their weary routine this week, when an immense band of moisture, known as the Pineapple Express for its origins in tropical waters near Hawaii, dumped record rain and drove rivers to new heights across western Washington and Oregon. The storm killed three people, breached levees, flooded farms, washed out roads and forced hundreds of evacuations.

from the NY Times