Posted: Friday, October 23, 2009
YAKIMA, WA - Residents of the Nile Valley in Eastern Washington are getting some extra help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps specializes in rebuilding infrastructure after natural disasters and war. The State of Washington is struggling to keep the Valley passable after a massive landslide destroyed a portion of Highway 410. Patricia Graesser is a spokeswoman for the Corps of Engineers in Seattle. She says right now the Naches River is threatening the only road out of the valley toward Yakima.
Graesser: “What we are trying to do is within the next week here get the river at least in a place where it should be going until they can get a new route built.”
The Army has sent equipment, material and half-a-dozen experts to help the state build a levee to redirect the river. The state estimates that crews have about a month to construct a new road out of the valley before the rising winter river takes out the Nile Road. (Anna King)
Copyright 2009 Northwest Public Radio