Woods Creek News

Dan Bates / The Herald Bill Easterling of the PUD pauses along Woods Creek, next to a small hydroelectric plant just below a waterfall, northeast of Monroe.

More dams are coming -- but they won't be the hulking structures of the past. Instead, the Snohomish County Public Utility District wants to construct miniature versions -- "micro hydro" in industry jargon -- in the upper reaches of streams and creeks, above already existing natural barriers to salmon and other migratory fish.

For Shelley Gomovitz, last week's flood was the all time worst that Rosecrest, her 100-acre Yeager Road farm, had ever experienced.

On my way out to SAFE yesterday, I saw that Woods Creek had gone way out of bounds, still filling up the parking lot at the Monroe Motel even after water levels had begun to drop.

The Monroe Motel on Old Owens Road had to evacuate guests after nearby Woods Creek Road pushed over its banks and flooded the mom and pop motel.