Flooding, fallen trees cause problems on Kitsap roads. Port Orchard plans to raise part of Bay Street by 2025
Several coastal areas in Kitsap County flooded Tuesday and several roads are closed because of flooding and strong winds that blew down trees.
The flooding hit hard in South Kitsap, where motorists drove in the water on Bay Street on Tuesday morning. The City of Port Orchard closed part of Bay Street between Kitsap Street and Bay Street and the roundabout at Bethel Avenue and Mile Hill Drive Tuesday morning and reopen the streets around noon after the tides receded, according to Port Orchard mayor Rob Putaansuu.
"We should be better tomorrow," Putaansuu told Kitsap Sun on Tuesday afternoon. "We have king tides again tomorrow, but there's no heavy rain forecasted."
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch through Wednesday morning, coastal flood advisory on Tuesday morning, and high wind warning through 1 a.m. on Wednesday for Kitsap County, according to National Weather Service.
The strong wind helped pushed the water that was already high from astronomical high tides on Tuesday, said NWS meteorologist Trent Davis. When heavy rain fell and came off the hill from downtown Port Orchard, the water couldn't dissipate to the bay because the tides were too high and caused the flooding on Tuesday morning, Putaansuu said.
To address the flooding problem, the city is planning to raise a portion of Bay Street by 1.5 feet as part of the city's community center project. The city was recently granted $1 million of federal funding, secured by Rep. Derek Kilmer, that would be used to design the improvements of Bay Street, according to Putaansuu.
"By 2025, we should have the road reconstructed and shouldn't have these types of problems," Putaansuu said.
Similar weather conditions are expected to last until Wednesday around noon and wind down in the rest of the week, Davis said.
Strong winds and heavy rains made the ground saturated and caused trees easier to fall and damage the wire. Around 49,000 people had lost power since Monday in Kitsap County. Puget Sound Energy crews have restored most of the outages and decreased the number of customers being affected by power outages in Kitsap County to 298 people as of Tuesday, said Puget Sound Energy spokesperson Jerald Tracy on Tuesday afternoon.
PSE expects more outages to occur as high wind is forecasted to continue through early Wednesday morning, Tracy said. Southwest winds could reach 30 to 40 mph and gusts could be up to 55 mph, according to National Weather Service.
"We are encouraging our customers to be ready for new outages as we continue to watch the forecasts and prepare to respond to new ones that could pop up at any moment," Tracy said.
More:Strong winds knock out power for thousands around Kitsap County
In North Kitsap, Point No Point Road at the intersection with Hillview Lane Northeast was closed because of flooding, according to the county's road report.
Two ramps along Highway 3 saw issues with standing water early Tuesday, according to the state Department of Transportation, causing lane closures on Waaga Way (Highway 303) and at Highway 308, in addition to water over the road on Highway 300 near Belfair State Park.
Several road closures were caused by trees falling down on the road, including Yukon Harbor Road Southeast between Southworth Drive and McGreggor Road, Beach Drive East between East Spring Hill Road and Watauga Drive East in South Kitsap, and Port Gamble Road Northeast at the intersection with Northeast Bear Hill Way in North Kitsap, according to the county.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Flooding causing issues on roads around Kitsap
