Seattle Rail Line Cut by Mud Slides; New Storm on Way

Flooding caused by heavy rain and melting snow forced dozens of families to leave their homes Monday and continued to block the only highway to a mountain resort where about 1,000 weekend skiers were stranded.

Rail travel was cut off east and south of Seattle by flooding and mud slides, including one slide that cut a gap 300 feet deep through 60 feet of track. Interstate 90, the major east-west highway, also was closed for part of the day.

Most of the evacuated families had returned home by late Monday, but another storm system was expected to hit the coast today, the National Weather Service said.

Officials declared emergencies in King County around Seattle and in Lewis County, south of Tacoma.

One firefighter was killed Sunday when he was hit by a train as he helped evacuate a nursing home threatened by flooding.

Plans had been made to airlift the skiers off Mt. Baker, near the Canadian border north of Seattle, where they were isolated Sunday, but Neil Clement, spokesman for the Whatcom County Department of Emergency Services, said Monday that it apparently was not necessary.

Clement said that most of the skiers “are being taken care of by the people of Glacier, who opened their homes and gave away their Thanksgiving dinners.” Others were sent to motels, campgrounds and churches.

Crews in earth movers began delivering emergency food and supplies Monday, Phil Cogan, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman, said.

About 80 families were evacuated when the Snoqualmie River flooded at least 200 houses in this town about 25 miles southeast of Seattle, and roads in some stretches were under eight feet of water, officials said.