Story Photos
 Castle Rock Fire District 6 swift water rescue team members Stu Hodnot, left, and Maria Schuh, right, bring Stacy Burnett, 28, out by kayak on the flooded Westover Drive on Wednesday. Greg Ebersole / The Daily News
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Stranded Longview residents escape by boat
Thursday, January 8, 2009 10:14 PM PST
By Tony Lystra
Printable version
E-mail this articleA rescue crew evacuated seven people by kayak from a small neighborhood off Nevada Drive on Wednesday as floodwaters from Westover Creek trapped dozens of residents.
The waters rose to around three feet along Lomor Drive and Westover Drive, but, as of late afternoon, it was unclear whether it had washed into any homes. No one was in immediate danger, fire officials said.
Most residents, who were without power, decided to wait it out. Some stranded neighbors stood in their yards, looking out over the stretch of brown water. A handful of members gathered throughout the day on the other side.
Flooding is common here, residents said, and figuring ways to get in and out of the neighborhood is an almost annual ritual.
Andrea Nimmo, 28, and her husband, Josh Nimmo, had been stranded with their infant daughter, Olivia, in their hillside home on Lomor Drive. They decided to try to walk out, figuring it would be too difficult to care for the baby without power and heat.
Andrea Nimmo said an off-duty firefighter, who helped the family find a mostly dry path, slipped into the waist-deep water while he was carrying Olivia.
“I thought he was going under,” she said.
The family, accompanied by Andrea Nimmo’s brothers, Nick Richardson, 20, and Jeremy Bruner, 30, then scaled up a steep hillside on the edge of Nevada Drive.
“Be careful!” Nimmo called out to Richardson as he carried Oliva up the slope. Richardson passed off Oliva and Nimmo hugged the baby tight.
Now, safely on high ground, the family planned to stay with a friend in Vancouver.
Three Cowlitz Fire District 6 rescue workers donned dry suits and helmets around 3 p.m. and slipped into the water with an inflatable kayak. They paddled door to door along Westover Drive, offering to evacuate residents.
Stacy Burnett, 28, accepted their offer.
“We have no electricity,” she said after the rescue team brought her out. “I didn’t want to play that game.”
“My mother and father in law are out there,” said Kelly Higdon, 36, of Lexington, who was standing at the water’s edge.
Higdon and her son Ryen Maynard, 18, said just before 2 p.m. that they were considering bringing in an aluminum boat to get them out.
“I would rather them leave,” Higdon said. “It’s not going to get better.”
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