FORKS — Construction crews are repairing a washout along the Hoh River that wiped out part of Upper Hoh Road on Friday.
A “pineapple express” storm system late last week washed away about one lane of the two-lane road 7.7 miles from U.S. Highway 101, closing the road and temporarily blocking access to Olympic National Park’s Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center and campground.
Park Ranger Jon Preston said he asked the four people camping there to leave the campground Friday morning, and he shut the park gate behind them in anticipation of flooding.
Jefferson County officials had no estimate Saturday of when the road might reopen. Crews were planning to work on Upper Hoh Road just outside the park boundary through the weekend.
County commissioners issued a declaration of emergency Friday morning for the 100-foot stretch of Upper Hoh Road and for other potential areas of erosion in the county’s West End.
