Lou Torres with the Oregon Department of Transportation also says drivers need to look out for standing water on the roadways. The flooding shut down roads, including Dartmouth Street and the intersection of Bonita Road and 72nd Avenue.
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Rivera urged anyone who sees blocked roads or unsafe conditions to call the PBOT tip line at 503-823-1700. The Oregon Zoo in Portland also closed.
The parking lot at Multnomah Falls, a popular tourist stop in the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland, was closed after a creek overflowed its banks.
The Clackamas County Emergency Operations Center will be staffed through 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Already, some major thoroughfares have flooded throughout Portland, snagging traffic and closing streets or lanes. Crews cleared the tracks several hours later, and streetcars began moving again.
The rains also caused the city’s sewer system to overflow into the Willamette River.
A flood watch for much of northwest OR and southwest Washington remains in effect through Thursday afternoon. The Bureau of Environmental Services urged people to avoid coming into contact with waterways and flood waters.
Rivers most at risk include the Grays, the Nehalem, the Wilson, the Trask, the Upper Tualatin, the Siletz, the Alsea, the Clackamas, the Luckiamute and the Pudding.
Bus and light rail service in the Portland area has been delayed.
Landslides also could be a problem because of the saturated ground.
Record-setting rainfall in OR closed roads and schools and caused transit delays, as well as the evacuation of low lying neighborhoods in a Portland suburb and flooding of an upscale downtown restaurant district, authorities said on Tuesday.
“Intense rainfall is a common landslide trigger”, says Bill Burns, engineering geologist at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.
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The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for much of Western Washington, as well as high wind warnings for the coast and other areas.
