Oregon Public Broadcasting

Flooding, mudslides and avalanches continue to block North-South and East-West travel in Washington State.

Transportation officials said Thursday morning they don’t know when I-5 and the Cascade Mountain passes will reopen. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

Commerce in Washington State has ground to a standstill. That’s the pronouncement from Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond.

Currently, Interstate 5 is closed in Southwest Washington due to water over the roadway. It could remain closed into the weekend.

All three Cascade mountain passes – Stevens, Snoqualmie and White – also remain blocked. Hammond says the problem on I-90 is that water is building up behind the walls of snow created by the plows.

Paula Hammond: “What’s happening now the water that’s draining off the mountain is getting trapped behind those walls and we’re having snow blowouts with water behind them, gushes of water going down the freeway.”

Currently more than 80 major roads are closed or partially closed in Washington State. The closure of I-5 alone is costing an estimated $4 million a day in lost business.