VERNONIA, Ore. -- Parts of Vernonia are under evacuation as flood waters continue to rise.
Firefighters and police officers went door-to-door Tuesday night, urging people to get out of their homes and wait out the storm on higher land. They also utilized an automated emergency notification phone system to warn people.
"We're keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn't get worse," one resident told KGW, as he hastily packed up to leave.
Some neighborhoods were soon submerged in water up to 9 feet deep, after the Nehalem River and two nearby creeks overflowed their banks.
This also made many of the streets impassible. But people in the small timber town were not totally caught off guard, because they have dealt with major flooding before.
That’s why Mayor Randy Parrow had recently invested in flood gates. He showed KGW how much they were helping hold back the water on Tuesday night.
“I really couldn’t be happier at this point. We have some residual water coming in, but nothing like it would be,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Red Cross set up a shelter at the Vernonia High School for displaced residents.
It's a relief that help arrived early, because the entire area was isolated for a while by a landslide that blocked Highway 47, the main road that leads in and out of town. However, at 10:30 crews said they had cleared the debris and the highway was back open.
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