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Northwest Flooding

Washington swamped by rains

• AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer , Paul Joseph Brown
• AP/The News Tribune, Janet Jensen
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• AP/The Oregonian
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• AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• AP/The Seattle Times, Steve Ringman
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• Jan. 8: Search and rescue workers evacuate a woman and her dog from a home along the Puyallup River between Tacoma and Puyallup, Wash.
• Jan. 8: Long-time friends and neighbors Sandy Swenson, left, and Kathy Ellenberger embrace after visiting their flood-damaged homes in Puyallup, Wash.
• Jan. 8: Airplanes are clustered on high ground in a flooded area of western Washington near Chehalis.
• Jan. 8: Wash. Lt. Gov. Brad Owen surveys floodwaters from the air as he tours western Washington near Chehalis. Floods, mudslides and avalanches in the Pacific Northwest kept tens of thousands of people from their homes and stranded hundreds of trucks along the major highways that link Seattle's busy ports with markets around the country.
• Jan. 8: Washington State Patrol Deputy Chief Paul Beckley walks away from a flooded stretch of Interstate 5.
• Jan. 8: The Puyallup River flows near flooded homes as seen from the air near Puyallup, Wash.
• Jan. 8: A truck drives along a closed stretch of the flooded Interstate 5 freeway as seen from the air.
• Jan. 8, 2009: A highway overpass over Interstate 5 runs into flood waters of the Chehalis River in Chehalis, Wash. Rain and high winds lashed Washington state Wednesday, causing widespread avalanches, mudslides, flooding and road closures from rapid snowmelt and the three main highways across the Cascade Range were closed.
• Jan. 8, 2009: Flooding in southwest Washington in the Chehalis and Centralia area.
• Jan. 8, 2009: Interstate 5 is covered by the flooding Chehalis River in this view looking north in Chehalis, Wash. Rain and high winds lashed Washington state Wednesday, causing widespread avalanches, mudslides, flooding and road closures from rapid snowmelt and the three main highways across the Cascade Range were closed.
• Jan. 7, 2009: Workers scramble to remove a building log jam on the Puyallup River in Fife, Wash., as the swollen river continued its record swell. Incoming tide at the river's delta and continued rain worried officials that the river would top levees and flood neighborhoods in Fife and Puyallup, Wash.
• Jan. 7, 2009: An emergency vehicle travels down the closed Fall City-Carnation Rd N.E. near Carnation that is blocked from the overflowing Tolt river in Snoqualmie Valley, Wash.
• Jan. 7, 2009: Lavon Wheatley, from left in boat, Leanne Church and Steve Church are rescued from their homes near Cougar, Wash. after Speelyai Creek flooded all escape routes.
• Jan. 7, 2009: In this photo provided by the Washington State Department of Transportation, water rushes past a washed out road near Blewett Pass on U.S. highway 97 in Washington State.
• Jan. 7, 2009: Against the advice of local law enforcement, many Orting residents, including this unidentified young couple stayed put as they watched the swollen Carbon River near the top of a levy near Orting, Wash.
• Jan. 7, 2009: Ellensburg Police Sgt. Brett Koss knocks on the door of a west Ellensburg, Wash. home which was surrounded by water during an evacuation of the neighborhood.
• Jan. 7, 2009: Residents of South Prairie, Wash., work to protect a home from waters that escaped the banks of South Prairie Creek.
• Jan. 7, 2009: Willie Jensen, 17, paddles a kayak down a flooded street near downtown Snoqualmie, Wash.
• Jan. 7, 2009: Volunteer Steve Santamaria hefts sandbags into the back of a truck near downtown Snoqualmie, Wash.