Widespread flooding seen in South Sound as residents brace for another round of rain

PUYALLUP, Wash. -- Roads are flooded, trees are toppled and many are looking for a new place to spend the night in the South Sound.

People trapped by the rising Puyallup River say the water came out of nowhere.

“Nerve-wracking, let’s put it that way,” Greg Brown said Wednesday.

Rescuers had to trudge through waist-deep water to save John Bielanin and several of his neighbors at the Puyallup RV Park.

At Riverview RV Park, the river was literally their view Wednesday.

“I was up 3 in the morning, watching this thing. All of a sudden it (the water) came between these two really fast,” Bielanin said.

Next door, businesses are using sandbags to fend off the Puyallup River spilling into their parking lot, inching closer to their doors.

"It’s going to rain tonight so we will see,” Kirin Singh said.

More rain is the last thing Dana Lewis needs.

“I was actually pinned by a tree limb,” Lewis said.

Lewis explained that she was standing outside her home when the massive tree toppled over. Luckily, the bulk of the tree missed her.

“You can feel the earth moving below you and, due to the size of the root, you can understand that,” Lewis said.

As residents cleaned up in areas affected, emergency crews started to focus their attention on new areas in danger of flooding.

Twenty-six properties in McKenna were possibly in jeopardy of flooding, including a nursing home near Highway 507.

“We’ve taken the non-ambulatory people out, people who can’t walk,” Sam Yount of South Pierce Fire & Rescue said.

Firefighters evacuated seven nursing home residents as a precaution Wednesday morning. Several hours later, those residents were allowed back in.

By Wednesday evening, experts predicted that the Nisqually River would not rise to the level they originally feared.