And now – the drive home

7:15 PM UPDATE: Went through that area of Delridge, nothing going on. So cancel that alert. Heard a city worker on the radio say Beach Drive is open again at the slide spot; will be heading out to check on that.

5:55 PM UPDATE: Could be new trouble on Delridge. “Automobile rescue” callout just popped up on the 911 site, 3800 block of Delridge (south of Skylark). Drivers heading that way, beware.

5:45 PM UPDATE: Steve reports: “Just got home (Gatewood) from SODO. First Ave S. and the high bridge were wide open.” Steve also notes that the Nucor mill is “completely dark”; we reported earlier that it had closed because of flooding – Margelyn also e-mailed earlier that she heard a radio-show caller say there’s a lot of water in Nucor’s basement and it might be closed a while; we’ll be checking on that but would also love to hear from anyone with firsthand updates.

5:09 PM UPDATE: OK, said team member has made it home. Summary: Not raining right now. Smooth sailing on The (high) Bridge, and beyond. Thinks maybe lots of people went home early. P.S. Check below in a few minutes for some added pix of today’s Delridge Deluge … we’ve received more, but don’t want to put them atop the commute info here till everyone’s home safe, so the post will be filed just BELOW this one.

4:42 PM UPDATE: Team member who’s heading home via The Viaduct says the left lane is closed for a stretch parallel to the south end of the waterfront (Coast Guard station on) so things are a little squeezed. Bridge update to come. Remember to scroll down for cam links and more.

4:15 PM UPDATE: First commute-home report from Vickie, who was worried about the Spokane St./Chelan Cafe’ area, but says Spokane “under the Harbor Ave offramps and to the north of Nucor doesn’t appear at this time to have any flooding troubles” — she says the low bridge, through that area, and up Avalon to 35th was all in good shape. (We have a WSB team member heading from downtown toward Morgan Junction soon and will have that update for you in a bit.) For those wondering about West Marginal Way – no trouble reported so far – here’s the city cam link.

4:10 PM UPDATE: Here’s a new press release from the city; it mentions that southbound lanes of the Battery Street Tunnel are closed, so if you get on 99 south of there, beware. No other West Seattle specifics aside from the Longfellow Creek flooding we have covered below.

3:35 PM ORIGINAL POST: We are gathering resources for drivers to check before heading back to West Seattle from workplaces elsewhere. First – so far as WS roads go – a recap of specific situations we have reported on further down the page: Remember that North Delridge has been the hardest-hit area (see photos and video below) – if you have to get to somewhere on Delridge, going around and approaching from the south is likely your best bet. Along Beach Drive, the mudslide’s not cleared yet (thanks to WSB sponsor Rhonda Porter from The Mortgage Porter for that update – she says on the north side, Beach Drive is closed at Jacobsen). For other roadway, here are some links to start with – we will add more info as we get/find it, including any reports you send about driving conditions:

WSB traffic-info page with cameras of particular WS relevance
All Seattle city traffic cams
All state DOT traffic cams
KIRO Radio continuous online regional traffic-incident info
Traffic.com regional traffic-incident info
Regional Public Information Network (RPIN) site with regional road closures and more
Alerts for roads managed by King County
Washington State Ferries service bulletins

12 Replies to "And now - the drive home"

  • S December 3, 2007 (3:38 pm)

    This is great – thank you!

  • Jan December 3, 2007 (3:49 pm)

    as I check out the pictures on here, and some of the traffic cams, I can only say one more time…I’m so glad I work at home…and at a high elevation (well, admiral district), and that clients can get here to see me. I feel for everyone who has to go slogging through this stuff. Be safe out there :)

  • John December 3, 2007 (3:54 pm)

    Driver killed, passenger injured when car slams into pole in West Seattle.

    Police say a Seattle man was driving in the inside lane and attempted to make a lane change when he lost control of the vehicle and hit the pole.

    (wsb note: king5.com url edited out because it’s too long and breaking the page width)

  • missB December 3, 2007 (3:57 pm)

    Any updates on West Marginal would be most helpful. The Chelan Lower bridge intersection make it appear to be passable (no police closure). Could this be true? Thank you WSB .

  • grr December 3, 2007 (4:00 pm)

    yeah..this is nuts. I’m glad I stayed home today as well (ok..I ventured out to Hotwire at 8am…)

    a boy’s gotta do what he’s gotta do…
    :)

  • WSB December 3, 2007 (4:07 pm)

    John – we actually reported that tragic crash last night. Long before KING. (Although this reminds us, we need to check if the victim has been identified.) Scroll down this page (buried below the many weather updates, posted 11:16 pm last night) … we actually have a photo too that we have to re-add, it’s on the “old” site (server change still proceeding across the Internet).

  • Rhonda Porter December 3, 2007 (4:19 pm)

    Beach Drive is actually closed at Jacobsen due to the mud slide. What a day!

  • jissy December 3, 2007 (4:21 pm)

    Yes, I need to know about West Marginal, too! THANK YOU WSB!!!

  • k December 3, 2007 (4:51 pm)

    Thank you all for the updates! Anticipating the update on the Fauntleroy route to the Morgan Junction.

  • tpn December 3, 2007 (4:59 pm)

    South Park’s lookin’ ugly:

    http://thepapernoose.blogspot.com/2007/12/south-park-flooding-on-concord.html

  • Jen December 3, 2007 (7:26 pm)

    the accident on north Delridge by Skylark looked bad when I passed it on the 125 bus at about 5:55. Older model yellow Beetle, really smashed up, five or six police cars, at least two fire trucks, and an ambulance. Northbound traffic blocked off at Genesee. Must’ve gotten cleaned up pretty quickly, though.

  • meg December 3, 2007 (8:19 pm)

    Does anyone have advice for water starting to seep in a basement? It isn’t flooded but the carpet is starting to get soaked in the corner. There is no standing water outside our house. Thanks!

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