Officials hoping to reopen park by Christmas

Officials at Mount Rainier National Park hope to return to normal operations in time for Christmas visitors after rain and flooding forced the park to close for the first time since Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980.

Nearly 18 inches of rain fell Nov. 5 and 6, swamping roads and bridges and cutting power and sewer lines.

Park officials say initial cleanup will take weeks. In some places, they won’t know the extent of the damage until after the snow melts in the spring.

Christmas is a popular season at Mount Rainier, with rangers offering guided snowshoe walks and cross country skiers hitting the trails. Sledding takes place at the base of the mountain.

The Nisqually River engulfed the main scenic highway through the park, leaving a quarter-mile gash in the Nisqually Road. The river now flows where a campground once stood.

Park officials said they hope to get the Nisqually Road reopened by Thanksgiving. The road is key for Christmastime visitors, and to construction work on the Paradise Inn, an aging lodge and restaurant built in 1917 that is undergoing refurbishment.

All other roads in the park besides Nisqually closed Nov. 1 for the winter, though they also suffered extensive damage. Highway 123 and the Stevens Canyon Road were impassible because of multiple washouts. The dirt Carbon Canyon Road was washed out in six places.

Mount Rainier wasn’t the only place that suffered damage from the Pineapple Express storm, named for its origin in warm Pacific waters.

Heavy rains also washed out a major highway near Oregon’s Mount Hood and closed the North Cascades Highway in north-central Washington.