Oregon Public Broadcasting

It now looks like I-5 in Southwest Washington won't open until this weekend at the earliest. Flood waters still cover much of the main North-South artery. It's been closed since Monday.  Correspondent Austin Jenkins has this update.

On I-5 near Centralia, State Trooper Todd Thornburg drives me right up to where the water covers the road.

Washington State Trooper Todd Thornburg on a flooded I-5

Todd Thornburg: “Still at least six or seven feet of water over it at the point where we're at for about a mile.”

Here I-5 is a lake where usually 54,000 cars and trucks pass on an average day. Further down the road, the water has receded some and crews are paving over flood damage.

Will Keepers: “This is really considered patchwork.”

Will Keepers is with the Department of Transportation. He feels the pressure to get this critical West Coast artery open again.

Will Keepers: “I work out in the middle of this on an almost daily basis so I'm well aware of the volume that we're impacting.”

Transportation officials hope to get at least one lane of I-5 back open sometime this weekend -- but it all depends on how much damage the roadbed sustained during the flood.