Yes. They initially are opening the freeway only to commercial truck traffic (which has no "short" detour route available). Passenger autos can detour east to Morton then north on Highway 7 which doesn't add TOO much time to the trip.

Sounds unconstitutional! Or something.

Maybe we can sue for them profiling.
/sarc.

Maybe trucks can go through deeper water/mud then cars

At I-5 NB and US12 the road is still blocked by WSDOT and they are now only allowing the semi's through at this time due to some water still being on the freeway area in Chehalis and repairs to the road are still in process. All other traffic has to proceed east on US12 to Morton and then North on HWY 7 to below Tacoma, or they could do the Yakima thing...but that is a waste of time.

Sounds like I-5 will be open to all within the next day or two.

It is amazing how fragile the Pacific Northwest is. Heavy rain? 40 MPH winds? Who could have anticipated these things?

Yeah, and according to the Oregonian, heavy rains and wind in the winter may become the "norm" for Oregon. Having lived here my entire life, I can hardly believe our usually dry, calm winters are going to change.

Jack, I think you aren't giving this storm its due. In Vernonia, rainfall over the three-day period was 11+ inches, three MORE inches than in 1996 when it last had a major flood. Along the coast winds were clocked as high as 140mph and, even more importantly, winds were sustained over 50mph for 36+ hours. This thing didn't quit! Also, not always, but in many cases, the really giant Northwest windstorms are dry. To have heavy rain over the course of two days saturating the soil, then to add in strong winds sustained over the entire period, that's going to cause a lot of damage.

AlBore is right! Global Wetting and Blowing has arrived in the normally calm, dry, NW!

Pete is right, when you get out and see the results, it was a major storm with unique differences from place to place, and from other storms, and that is normal.