Heavy rains, high tides lead to Capitol Lake flooding

Heavy rainfall, flooding on the Deschutes River and high tides in Puget Sound led to flooding around Capitol Lake early Thursday morning.

Jim Erskine, a spokesman for the state Department of Enterprise Services, said the flooding began at about 5 a.m. and affected the area from the walking bridge to Heritage Park and the Fifth Avenue dam spillway. A storm drain on Water Street near the Olympia Supply hardware store backed up, and the surrounding streets flooded as well.

City of Olympia crews responded and pumped water off of the streets, Erskine said. The water had receded by early afternoon.

Erskine said Enterprise Services, which manages the lake, will continue to monitor water levels as storms continue. He said officials worried that more flooding could come with the next high tide, occuring at 4:08 p.m. Thursday, or over the next few days.

“It could get interesting,” Erskine said. “There’s more rain coming, and we’re going to have some really high tides.”

But while Capitol Lake looked fuller than normal during the afternoon high tide Thursday, there was no flooding — only large puddles and lines of debris from the earlier flood in Heritage Park.

Enterprise Services and City of Olympia crews were standing by in case of flooding.

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Heavy rains, high tides lead to Capitol Lake flooding."