• Storm slams Pacific Northwest with record rain, wind; at least one dead

    Rain floods a Seattle area parking lot, damaging numerous vehicles, including a man's brand new car. KING's Jim Forman reports.

    By NBC News staff and news services

    The heavy winds and rain that pummeled the Pacific Northwest, flooding roads and highways and leaving at least one person dead, eased on Tuesday though showers remained in the forecast for much of the Thanksgiving holiday week.

    Rain and wind pounded Washington and Oregon on Monday, flooding streets, toppling large trucks and cutting power to more than 20,000 people.

    Nearly 2 inches of rain fell in six hours in one Seattle neighborhood — a total that Seattle Public Utilities meteorologist James Rufo-Hill called "extraordinary."


    "It was a pretty big storm for most of the city — lots of rain in a relatively short amount of time," he said, but several neighborhoods "really got drenched."

    By late Monday night,  2.13 inches of rain had fallen for the day at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, shattering the record of 1.23 inches for Nov. 19 set in 1962.

    Other areas of Western Washington fared even worse. More than 7 inches fell over a two-day period in Potlatch, Mason County, more than 6 inches in Bremerton and nearly 4 inches in Olympia, meteorologist Jay Neher said, according to The Seattle Times. 

    The drenching caused widespread flooding of roads and highways and some residential neighborhoods, and even sewage overflows in parts of Seattle and Everett, Wash. Several blocks of downtown streets were briefly flooded in Port Orchard, west of Seattle.

    Wet weather was expected to continue through the week, but National Weather Service meteorologist Jay Neher in Seattle said that the "heavy rain is over."

    "We're into showers now," he said.

    The Spokesman-Review via AP

    During a strong gust of wind, Michele Purkey's umbrella flips back as she crosses street Monday in downtown Spokane, Wash.

    Weather Service meteorologist Ted Buehner said he had one "screaming message" for those traveling across mountain passes for Thanksgiving: "Be prepared for hazardous winter weather — and that includes coming back," Buehner told The Seattle Times.

    On Oregon's northwest coast, an elk hunter was killed Monday morning when a tree crashed on his tent near Nehalem. Two hunters in an adjacent camp heard the tree snap as gusts reached more than 70 mph, and saw it lying across the tent. They cut it away in an attempt to rescue the man, to no avail.

    Nearly 44 million people in the U.S. will travel this Thanksgiving week with a whopping 90 percent driving. NBC's Tom Costello reports.

    Tillamook County Sheriff Andy Long identified the hunter as Nathan Christensen, 52, of Seattle.

    A Portland police officer was seriously injured during all-terrain vehicle training when a tree fell. Sgt. Pete Simpson said the accident on Hayden Island in the Columbia River appeared to be weather-related.

    In southwest Washington, a Washington State Patrol car and another vehicle were struck by a tree carried by a mudslide on U.S. Highway 101 near Naselle.

    The patrol car started burning, and the trooper had to break a window to crawl to safety. The trooper was unhurt, and the female driver of the other vehicle was OK except for neck pain. Both vehicles were destroyed by the fire.

    Strong winds overturned large commercial trucks on two highways Monday. One tractor-trailer rig tipped over while crossing the Astoria-Megler Bridge that carries U.S. 101 across the Columbia River. That caused a lengthy traffic headache.

    Another tractor-trailer rig was blown onto its side in the middle of the Chehalis River Bridge in Aberdeen, on the Washington coast, Aberdeen police said.

    Peak wind gusts in Washington reached 101 mph on the Astoria bridge and 61 mph at Hoquiam on the coast. They hit 114 mph on isolated Naselle Ridge in the mountains of southwest Washington, the Weather Service reported.

    Thousands of people in Oregon and Washington were left without power on Monday.

    Flood warnings were issued for a handful of western Washington rivers, with moderate flooding expected Tuesday along the Chehalis River in the Centralia area. Residents there were told where to find sandbags and were directed to move any endangered livestock to higher ground.

    The Weather Service reported 24-hour rainfall totals as of Monday evening that included 4.09 inches in Bremerton, west of Seattle; 2.97 inches at Hoquiam on the Washington coast; and 6 inches at Cushman Dam on the Olympic Peninsula.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • 'Best year ever' for some farmers outside drought region

    The severe drought ruining crops around much of the United States has spared the Pacific Northwest. Farmers in Washington are enjoying high crop yields and high prices.

    See our full drought coverage here. And on Wednesday, Aug. 15, watch NBC News, CNBC, MSNBC, The Weather Channel and Telemundo for daylong, network-wide coverage of the drought.

    “When there is a drought, prices go up. So where you are, that you don’t have a drought, you’re reaping the benefits of someone else taking it in the shorts,” said Justin Waddington, a farmer in Yakima Valley, Washington.

    “It’s kind of sad that someone has to go broke somewhere or have a hard time for somebody to do good,” said Waddington.

    Watch NBCNews.com’s full report from John Brecher above.  

    More coverage of the drought: 

    Drought sends Mississippi into ‘uncharted territory’ 

    ‘Best year ever’ for some farmers outside drought region   

    Forced to sell cattle during drought, dairy farmers ‘just keep praying’ for rain

    Drought expected to take toll at checkout

    Americans tell their story of #Drought2012 

    In drought-stricken Wisconsin, farmers helping farmers  

    Emergency well drilling brings relief to farmers stricken by drought

    Have you been affected by the worst drought in more than 50 years? Share your photos with us on Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter with the tag #Drought2012. You can also upload your photos in the box below. 

  • Quake catastrophe like Japan's could hit Pacific Northwest, new data show

    A February map from the U.S Geological Survey shows the estimated range of the great Cascadia earthquake of 1700.

    By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

    A massive earthquake like the one that unleashed a giant tsunami and killed nearly 16,000 people in Japan a year ago not only could happen here in the U.S., but probably will — and relatively soon in terms of seismological history.

    The Tohoku earthquake was the most closely monitored in history, yielding an unprecedented breadth of data, geophysicists and seismologists say. And for residents of the Pacific Northwest, the new data should be worrisome.

    "It's just like Japan, only a mirror image," said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

    The disaster in Japan occurred because of stress from the Pacific tectonic plate sliding below Japan, according to new research discussed last month at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver, British Columbia.

    The lead researcher, John Anderson, a geophysicist at the University of Nevada-Reno, said the plates locked together, slowly pushing Japan westward.

    Ben Gutierrez and Lisa Kubota of NBC station KHNL in Honolulu contributed to this report by M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

    The plates released catastrophically on March 11, 2011, creating a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami waves that topped 100 feet, said Anderson, who spent most of the past year in Japan as a visiting research professor in Tokyo.

    While most Americans probably think the San Andreas fault running through California poses the greatest threat of unleashing a killer mega-quake, data from the Japanese quake indicate that the distinction actually belongs to the Cascadia fault line, which runs through southern Canada, Washington and Oregon to Northern California, Anderson said at the conference.

    USGS earthquake information by state

    Biggest threat zones

    The biggest threats of a U.S. mega-quake (generally defined as one of magnitude 7.0 or greater) lie along three fault lines:

    The Cascadia subduction zone stretches from northern Vancouver Island through Seattle and Portland, Ore., to Northern California, separating the Juan de Fuca and North America plates. Giant quakes are believed to occur there every 300 to 600 years; the last was Jan. 26, 1700. Recent research suggests the region could have a 37 percent chance of a magnitude-8.2 quake or greater in the next 50 years.

    The San Andreas transform fault runs the length of California, separating the Pacific and North American plates. The last mega-quake was in 1906 near San Francisco, but large earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or above are relatively common in historical terms, having occurred as recently as September 2004 near Parkfield.

    The New Madrid seismic zone stretches southwest from New Madrid, Mo. (pronounced MAD-rid), and is most active in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee, where it regularly produces small- to medium-intensity temblors. Three magnitude-8.0 quakes are believed to have occurred in the region from December 1811 to February 1812; had Memphis, Tenn., existed at the time, it likely would have been destroyed. Since then, the largest earthquake was a magnitude-6.6 quake in October 1895 near Charleston, Mo.

    msnbc.com research/M. Alex Johnson. Sources: NASA Astrophysics Data System, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oregon State University College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, U.S. Geological Survey.

    Like Fryer, he called the Pacific Northwest trench a "mirror image" of the Japanese trench — except potentially even more dangerous.

    "In this mirror image, one can see that if the same earthquake occurred in Cascadia, the fault would rupture to a significant distance inland, since the Cascadia trench sits much closer to the coastline than the trench off the coast of Japan," Anderson said.

    While some probability models predict that a Cascadia earthquake wouldn't rupture so far under the land, "if it does, the data from the Tohoku earthquake predict stronger ground motions along our West Coast than those seen in Japan," he said.

    In layman's terms, what's happening is that the region "is being deformed because the plates are locked together, and the shoreline is sinking and the rest of the thing is being bent," Fryer said in an interview with NBC station KHNL of Honolulu.

    Fryer said the big question is not whether a Japan-like quake will happen, but when.

    A coastal Oregon town considers building a tsunami- and earthquake-proof city hall. Experts and residents debate whether the plan will work.

    "Where are we here? Are we close or are we not close?" he asked. "I think the suspicion is that it could be sooner rather than later."

    Anderson's research supports that conclusion.

    Experts generally agree that last great Cascadia earthquake happened on Jan. 26, 1700. It generated tsunami waves that indicated that its magnitude was also about 9.0.

    "Earthquakes of this size in the past may have recurred with intervals of as small as about 300 years," Anderson said at the AAAS conference last month. "So it would not be a scientific surprise if such an event were to occur in the near future. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, look at the videos of Tohoku as a reminder to be prepared."

    In January, experts discussed lessons from the Japanese earthquake at a conference of the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup.

    The warnings come as the White House is proposing a 2013 budget that would cut $4.6 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's tsunami programs. Much of that would come from the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, which funds evacuation maps, training and education efforts — important services given how deeply the Japanese quake and tsunami transformed the science of seismology.

    "The Japan earthquake told us that a lot of what we understand about how earthquakes work is wrong," Fryer said. "Do we now have to go back and look at all of our evacuation maps and make sure that they're right? That's a question that's still unanswered, and that question would be answered with tsunami hazard mitigation program funds."

    More on the Japan Quake-Tsunami from msnbc.com and NBC News:

  • Flooding, power outages linger after huge Northwest storm

    Ted S. Warren / AP

    A downed tree rests on a car Thursday in front of an apartment building in Tacoma, Wash.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated 3:45 p.m.: Temperatures in the Puget Sound region warmed above freezing on Friday, but tens of thousands of people remained without power after coatings of snow and ice took down power lines and trees around the region.

    The Tacoma Narrows Bridges between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula were closed because ice was falling from the upper structures and cables on to the roadway, NBC station KING/5 of Seattle reported.

    Sea-Tac Airport re-opened all three runways Friday after a layer of ice forced the airport to shut them down Thursday. But there was still a significant backup of flights.

    Schools in the Seattle area were closed for a fourth straight day during a week already shortened by the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday.

    In western Oregon, flooding rivers were expected to start to recede as the state got a break in rainstorms through Friday afternoon, said Nick Allard, meteorologist at NBC station KGW of Portland.

    Original post: Utility crews worked Friday to restore power to hundreds of thousands of Pacific Northwest residents left in the dark by a powerful snow and rain storm.

    About 250,000 electric customers around Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia were expected to begin a second day in the cold and dark. Most of those affected are customers of Puget Sound Energy, which said it could take into the weekend or later to get the power back on for everybody.

    The storm coated much of Washington in ice and swelled Oregon rivers, killing a child and two adults. Besides the outages, the big concern now is more flooding in both states with warmer temperatures and rain.

    The National Weather Service said warming temperatures Friday should melt snow and ice in the Western Washington lowlands as the forecast returns to normal — rain — into next week. Forecasters said the melting snow could cause urban and small stream flooding and fill the Skokomish and Chehalis rivers above flood stage by Saturday evening.

    Gov. Chris Gregoire of Washington and Gov. John Kithaber declared both a state of emergency, authorizing the use of National Guard troops if necessary.

    Oregon, which saw the storm heap a torrent of rain on top of melting snow, should see a break for some hours before another front comes in, said meteorologist Paul Tolleson in Portland, Ore.

    "It'll be just enough rain to make people nervous," he said.

    The unusually strong system temporarily shut down Seattle's airport Thursday. Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air canceled 310 flights to and from Seattle Thursday and Alaska Air said it was canceling 50 flights on Friday. Seattle is Alaska Air's main hub.

    Deadly consequences
    The storm left three people dead: a mother and her 1-year-old boy, killed after torrential rain swept away a car from an Albany, Ore., grocery store parking lot; and an elderly man fatally injured by a falling tree as he was backing an all-terrain vehicle out of a backyard shed near Seattle.

    Thomas Patterson / AP

    Floodwaters run over Gun Club Road in Independence, Ore., Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Though most of the Willamette Valley's overnight snow rapidly melted away, heavy wind and rain whipped through the region. (AP Photo/Statesman-Journal, Thomas Patterson)

    The weather system also dropped snow on Washington's Mount Rainier, where four people were reported missing. A search was suspended at nightfall but was to resume Friday.

    “It really is pointless to [attempt a rescue] in blizzard conditions …,” Stefan Lofgren, head of Rainier’s climbing program but not part of this search, told The News Tribune. “You can’t place people at risk in the same weather that pinned down the people you are trying to rescue.”

    In Oregon, flooding hit the Salem-to-Eugene area the hardest, with 17 rivers across the region at or near flood stage, The Oregonian reported. Some 15.5 inches fell  in 48 hours in the tiny Lane County town of Swiss Home.

    Portions of several Oregon highways were closed Thursday due to high water or downed trees.

    Rick Bowmer / AP

    A submerged school bus lies on its side as Diane Garibaldi looks on Thursday in Salem, Ore. Up to 10 inches of rain fell on parts of the Oregon Coast Range in a 36-hour period.

    In the Willamette Valley town of Scio, Ore., many residents evacuated as the city manager said water was pouring down Main Street.

    Officials in the city of Turner, Ore., issued a voluntary evacuation order to people, asking them to flee to higher ground as floodwaters from the rising Mill Creek swept through town.

    To the west of Oregon's Coast Range, residents were being moved out of Mapleton, with a population of about 900.

    The storm system also brought blowing snow to northwest Colorado as high winds battered the Front Range, with more heavy snow expected over the weekend.

    Meteorologist Mike McFarland at the National Weather Service in Seattle said the system that brought freezing rain was over Minnesota, Wisconsin and parts of Nebraska and Kansas Friday but not packing the same punch.

    "I don't think it looks like a very interesting system back east," he said. "Even though it was interesting here, it's not an extensive storm that will do much of anything anywhere else.

    "It was unusual but not exceptionally potent, otherwise."

    The Associated Press and msnbc.com's James Eng contributed to this story.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

  • Your photos of the Pacific Northwest storm

    It may not have been of "epic" proportions, according to NBC meteorologists, but the storm that hit Seattle and beyond on still brought much of the area to a standstill. Join the msnbc.com readers who sent in photos by emailing your pictures to firstperson@msnbc.com. Make sure to include the time, date and location where your photo was taken.

     

    Margaret Nordstrom / FirstPerson

    Downtown Seattle on Wednesday

    Mary Logan / FirstPerson

    A resident of Vancouver, Washington, on Wednesday morning.

    Jim Pollock / FirstPerson

    Eliana Pollock enjoys a nerd/snow day in Redmond, Washington, on Wednesday.

    Allison Groover / FirstPerson

    Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, northwest of Seattle, on Wednesday.

    Sara Bronson / First Person

    15 and a half inches of snow in Doty, Wash., an hour south of Seattle!

    Sara Bronson / FirstPerson

    Taken in Doty, Wash.

    Suna / FirstPerson

    Cats and friend checking out the Seattle snowstorm.

    Jennifer Cline / FirstPerson

    A ferry makes its route between Mukilteo and Clinton, Washington, on Tuesday.

    Robert Magee / FirstPerson

    Snowed in in Arlington, Wash. Hasn't happened in over 15 years.

    Hilary Friedrich / FirstPerson

    Driving on I-5 South from Bellingha, to Mt. Vernon, Wash.

    Darla Davey Medina / FirstPerson

    View out my front door in northeast Tacoma, Wash. Even government agencies are shut down today.

    Cindy Elder Wiedmann via Facebook

    Snowfall on Tuesday just south of Bellingham, Wash., photographed by msnbc.com reader Cindy Elder Wiedmann.