Storm cuts off access on Highway 35

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A highway on the east side of Mount Hood washed out in an election-week storm that passed through the Pacific Northwest, and it may take $20 million to reopen it, state highway officials said.

Oregon 35 was among the state highways damaged by the storm, expected to be followed by another on the weekend.

The White River flowed over the highway Monday and Tuesday, said Bill Barnhart, an Oregon Department of Transportation manager. Two creeks also wiped out a section of the highway to the north.

The river made cuts at least 20 feet deep through the highway and the Mount Hood National Forest, hurling boulders and trees down the mountainside.

On Mount Hood, as much as a million cubic yards of rock, mud and sand covered a quarter-mile stretch of Oregon 35, the main highway connecting U.S. 26 from Government Camp to Hood River.

"None of us at ODOT or the U.S. Forest Service have ever seen it this bad," Barnhart said. "Our biggest concern right now is the safety of our workers."

There were no estimates when the highway would reopen, but state officials predicted federal money would be needed.

"There is so much to do, much to plan, before we even attempt to say how long it will take or how much it will cost," Barnhart said.

The highway washed out in the summer of 2005, and state crews needed about a week to reopen it.(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)