Possible Rainier price: $100 million

National Parks figure disputed by Mount Rainier superintendent

By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy newspapers • Published March 28, 2007

The National Park Service director Tuesday pegged the price tag of flood damage at Mount Rainier National Park at nearly $100 million, far beyond previous estimates of $36 million.

Mary Bomar offered the figure to the House interior appropriations subcommittee. She also said that the Nisqually Road, which was severely damaged by November flooding, will be open to the public from the entrance of the park to Paradise by May 1.

Dave Uberuaga, Mount Rainier National Park superintendent, told The Olympian on Tuesday evening that he's not sure where Bomar got the $100 million estimate. Mount Rainier National Park officials are standing by their estimate of $36 million, he said.

"Our caveat is still that 80 percent of the park is covered with snow, and as the snow melts, we expect to find more damage from the flood and from winter storms," Uberuaga said.

The extent of the unprecedented damage might not be known until the snow melts, according to a park service briefing memo delivered to the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., during a hearing.

More than 18 inches of rain fell in the park in less than 36 hours in early November, touching off floods that swept away roads, campgrounds, trails and other facilities. The park was closed for weeks, the first closure since World War II.

Bomar visited the park Nov. 17 to see the damage.

Most of the park remains closed, though there is limited foot access to Longmire and along the Carbon River Road. But the hike can be dangerous. Two people drowned in the park last week as they tried to cross a creek.

"Its a natural disaster and you have to fix this stuff," Dicks said after the hearing. "I feel good the way the park service has responded."

The park service memo said possible delays caused by winter conditions have been factored into the May 1 date for opening the Nisqually Road, the park's main year-round corridor. At least four sections of the road were damaged or obliterated in the floods.

State Route 123, part of the main north-south corridor on the parks east side, is not expected to open to the public until October at the earliest. And Stevens Canyon Road, the only road connecting the east and west sides of the park, might not open to the public until August, the memo said.