At least there was some warning.
On Wednesday, as an atmospheric river headed to the Pacific Northwest, Matthew Lynch kept one eye on the weather.
Lynch lives with his wife, Vanessa Berntsen, and two dogs between Barton and Carver in Clackamas County on the south edge of the Clackamas River, about 30 minutes outside of Portland.
Lynch and Berntsen have lived in their house, which is owned by Berntsen’s parents, for 12 years.
The house has flooded before, Lynch said, during the floods of February 1996 that inundated many parts of the Willamette Valley. So when the county issued a flood watch along the Clackamas River from Estacada to Carver on Wednesday night, he and Berntsen took the warning seriously.
By Thursday morning, they were working to move as much as they could out of danger. By 4 a.m. Friday, the house was submerged in over 5 feet of water.
“We’ve lost all of our major appliances,” Berntsen said. “Our entire closet is molded and destroyed.”
As Thursday brought record-setting rain to the Portland area, the Clackamas River began to rise. Officials warned that the river could reach major flood stage, and by Friday morning, sheriff’s deputies were knocking on some residents’ doors demanding they evacuate.
Several people had to be rescued from floodwaters on the Clackamas River on Friday, but no one was seriously injured.
Lynch and his family had been preparing. He worked from 10 a.m. Thursday through the night, trying to get as many belongings as possible out of the home. After midnight on Friday, he had to stop so he could get out safely.
“The water came in so fast,” Lynch said. “At 10 (on Thursday night) the water was over the road a little bit, and then by 1 in the morning, it was pretty much impassable.”
His work paid off, though much was still lost from the house. Lynch was able to save things from his bedroom and some large pieces of furniture. But items in the spare room and the garage are gone.
In Lynch’s neighborhood, many people are still assessing damage done by the water, he said. Basements are flooded, furnaces destroyed.
“A lot of people still don’t have sewer or septic systems,” he added.
As of Sunday, Lynch’s house is still “waterlogged,” he said.
It will take at least three to five months of work to make the house livable again, according to a person from the homeowner’s insurance who came to the scene on Saturday, Lynch said.
“The carpets are destroyed, the flooring, the walls,” he said. “We have no power in the house, because we can’t turn it back on yet, because we don’t know the condition of the electrical.”
While Berntsen’s parents own the house and have given the couple a room to stay in while it is being fixed, quarters are tight, they said.
Lynch and Berntsen do not have renters’ insurance. They have launched a GoFundMe to help cover their expenses.