House on Washougal River damaged during storm

Stormy weather Tuesday caused damage to the deck of a house along the Washougal River.

Neil Williams, 66, came home at about 6 p.m. Tuesday to his house at 36607 N.E. Washougal River Road and checked the river to find it about a foot below flood level.

But by an hour later, his crawl space started to flood.

“I wasn’t too worried about it,” he said. “But then all of a sudden, I thought it was an earthquake.”

About 10 minutes after the shaking, he felt it again but twice as bad, he said. Williams looked out toward his sun rooms and saw that a beam of his deck was wagging.

A tree had come down the river and hit his deck, knocking two of the posts out from under it and damaging the other two posts.

He called 911, and crews with East County Fire & Rescue responded, but couldn’t do much other than watch to make sure the river didn’t cause more damage.

“They came down and looked. I got a lot of ‘Wow, I haven’t seen it like this,’ ” Williams said. “The water was making a roar sound. It was really loud.”

He said he doesn’t know of any damage to his house, but is still inspecting.

“I’d say it could have been worse,” he said.