Oregon Public Broadcasting

The city of Turner is mopping up today on Friday after suffering the brunt of this week's torrential rains. Locals living in the lower parts of Turner had to evacuate on Thursday. Some have had wet homecomings.

Rob Manning / OPB

Richard Bates of Turner evacuated Thursday night, and returned home Friday morning. He remembers the flooding of 1996, when he says it took a week or so for the high water to recede from his property.

White sandbags line the foundation around Richard Bates' home in Turner. Bates was forced out of his home yesterday by approaching floodwater. Now, he's sweeping twigs and other debris off his driveway, in front of his garage workshop.

"It didn't get in here, and it didn't get into the house, it got into her sewing room, thing – the other garage, about two inches. We got a carpet and it's wet. It's not real wet, so I don't know. I thought I was going to be able to keep it out, but I didn't quite make it," says Bates.

Bates says he didn't have time to get down all the sandbags he wanted to. But he's lucky compared to some.

Danielle Adams is sorting through what's left of her beauty salon after three feet of water washed through this week. Friends and family buzz around her, asking what can be saved – and what's headed to the dump.

"Save or chuck?" says a neighbor.

"Anything questionable, just throw out."

Adams recalls the last time she saw her shop, before the flood. 

"The night before the flood, I was down here at 10:00. I had stopped by to pick up something, and you know it was pouring down rain. The water was high on the creek, but wasn't overflowing or anything, and I thought I would just go down in the morning and check on it, and see if it's looking questionable, then we'd get some stuff, and then they wouldn't even let me down here at 7 a.m.,"

Adams says her husband was able to make it to the shop to rescue some documents. She says he found the shop's the laminated floor floating in water.

"It was, three feet of water. A lot of this stuff was floating. It totally moved the couch, I mean the couch was not over there. That little refrigerator was floating. It's devastating," says Adams.

Adams says she's been told to throw out anything that got wet, because the water could have sewage or other pollutants in it. Like a number of other business and homeowners, Adams' insurance doesn't cover this kind of disaster. She's had her business two years, and she can't afford to buy all new equipment.

"We're not sure. We're not sure kinda, what's going to happen next. And how long it's going to be to get it up and running. I don't even know," says Adams. 

Rob Manning / OPB

Governor John Kitzhaber tours flood damaged areas in Turner with City Administrator David Sawyer.

City officials estimate less than 100 homes suffered significant damage from the flood. Turner Mayor Paul Thomas says emergency responders evacuated 120 people by boat and by car. But Mayor Thomas says those aren't the most important numbers.

"You know, the biggest stat of all this, if you like statistics, is 'nobody was hurt'," says the mayor. 

No one was hurt in Turner, though two people were killed and two injured in Albany after their car was overwhelmed by floodwaters.

City officials hope they've seen the worst of the flood damage. But there were still inmates filling sandbags next to City Hall this afternoon just in case, today's drizzle turns into something worse.