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What's next
•Public-disaster assessment teams were in Pacific, Mason and Kitsap counties Wednesday, and teams were due today in Thurston, King and Snohomish counties, said Steve Pierce, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Gregoire.
•Meeting: Red Cross workers and services will be available at a community meeting at 6 p.m. today at Adna High School, 121 Adna School Road, Chehalis.
•Operations center: The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state hope to open a joint operations center by Friday in Lacey, but that office is only for administrative purposes and won't serve the public.
Getting help
•Resources: What funding resources are available for people affected by the flooding? View a list at www.emd.wa.gov or www.wadisasternews.com.
•FEMA: Flooding victims in Lewis and Grays Harbor counties can register with FEMA by calling 800-621-3362 (FEMA). They also can register at www.fema.gov. Thurston County residents are advised to report damage to Thurston County Emergency Services as well as FEMA by calling 360-754-3360 or going to www.co.thurston.wa.us/em.
•Spanish-language forum: Thurston County Emergency Management and Public Health and Social Services staffers will join Lewis County Emergency Management representatives in a forum at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Centralia Community College, 600 Centralia College Blvd., Centralia.
Giving help
•The Furniture Bank of Thurston County will collect gently used furniture for flood victims from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. It can be brought to the Harbor Wholesale Grocery trailer at Olympia Christian Reformed Church, 2121 Log Cabin Road, Olympia.
•DreamCasters seeks help with its adopt-a-family program. For information, call 360-864-2530.
•The Lighthouse Gospel Quartet will give a benefit concert at 3 p.m. Dec. 22 at Mountain View Church of the Nazarene, 940 Israel Road S.W., Tumwater. Clothing and nonperishable food will be accepted, along with other donations.
•Transporting appliances: Residents in Doty need help disposing of appliances destroyed by the flood. Volunteers with trucks and/or trailers are asked to call 360-748-8100.
•Fantastic Sam's in Lacey will give $10 haircuts with money going to families of Chehalis Fantastic Sam's workers. The haircuts are from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday at 4660 Whitman Lane, Suite D.
•Horse shows to benefit victims will be Saturday in Olympia at the Flying M Arena, 3922 113th Ave. S.W. Shows start at 8 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Cost is $25 per rider. A raffle will take place at the end of each show.
•The Washington State Farm Bureau has a relief fund for farmers. To donate, call 800-331-3276 or mail checks, made payable to the bureau, to WFB, P.O. Box 8690, Lacey, WA 98509.
•The Valley Athletic Club owners Dan and Wendy Sandy will donate $20,000 to victims and ask for the public's help to reach $50,000 for the Washington Farm Bureau Flood Relief Fund. Food donations can be dropped off at the concierge desk until Dec. 21.
In Mason County
Call 360-427-9670 or 360-275-4467 for more information on any of the following:
•Clean-up: A cleanup effort will take place Saturday for storm victims. Call ext. 390 and leave contact information by 5 p.m. Friday.
•Contact: To report damage, call 360-427-7535.
•Donating: Make checks payable to St. David's Episcopal Church — Mason County Flood Victims, and drop them off at the church, 324 W. Cedar St. Donations and supplies are being accepted and distributed at 751 W. Fairgrounds Road, Shelton, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
•More information: www.co.mason.wa.us.
The Olympian
'You don't understand it until you're in it'
Tour shows what farmers face in flood aftermath
By Christian Hill | The Olympian
State officials and lawmakers toured flood-ravaged Lewis County on Wednesday to see the devastation to farms and families as the cleanup continues.
Photo gallery: Washington Farm Bureau leads flood relief tour
The Washington Farm Bureau organized the daylong tour to draw attention to its flood-relief fund and reiterate that the recovery for affected families will take many months.
Nearly $20,000 has poured into the fund, but "that's a drop in the bucket of what folks are going to need," said Dan Wood, the bureau's director of local government affairs.
The need was on display at the dairy farms in and around hard-hit Boistfort Valley in western Lewis County, where farmers lost dozens of cows, if not entire herds, to the floodwaters.
State officials and lawmakers visited about a half-dozen dairy farmers during the tour. Between stops, they passed residents slopping through several inches of river silt to clean up homes, and farmland and pastures covered in mud and standing water.
The dairy farmers shared similar experiences. They never expected the floodwaters to rise so high so quickly. They did everything they could to move their cows to high ground, but it wasn't enough, they said.
Two related the horror they felt as noise from their frightened cows faded into eerie silence as the cattle succumbed to or were swept away by the floodwaters.
The water inundated their barns, homes and farm equipment. Some of the farmers displayed pictures to show the visitors the immediate aftermath of the flooding, but third-generation dairy farmer Roy Osborn, who lost nearly 180 cows, said photos couldn't convey the extent of the devastation.
"You don't understand it until you're in it," he said.
The farmers voiced concerns about their immediate future. Milk production is down; it took hours to get hay and feed to the cows that survived. Many cows have fallen ill and had to be put down — or still need to be.
Farmers have been clearing mud from their properties, a seemingly endless job given that some farmland sits under a foot of river silt.
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