CENTRALIA – Since most of the roads were flooded or closed, Mike Shope reached his destination via the only surefire way: He drove his Ford F-150 along the railroad tracks.

As he headed past residential roads inundated with brown, silty water, a Tacoma Rail utility truck came rolling by and blared its horn. After Shope veered his truck off the tracks and onto a dry part of the street, the utility truck’s driver shook his head and laughed.

"Any other day," he said, "we might do something about that. But not today."

That’s because this Lewis County city hasn’t seen flooding like in more than a decade. This year, a dike on the Chehalis River broke, spilling water into the surrounding areas. Large parts of Centralia were shut down as crews tried to alleviate the flooding. Helicopters – from television stations and the Coast Guard – flew patterns over the area as the National Guard plucked people out of their homes.

Shope and his passengers, Dwayne Powell and Darrin Myers, navigated through the flooded residential streets to check on Myers’ house, which was a block away from the tracks and near Logan Park.

What he found wasn’t pretty: Four inches of water sloshed through his house and ruined parts of the interior.

"There was mud everywhere," he said. He pointed to the sloppy ground and said, "It basically looks like this inside."

The three also had a boat tied to the truck’s bed that they used to check on an elderly couple – the grandparents of a friend of Powell’s who lives in Colorado. The couple was OK, but their basement was completely flooded. The water came within inches of entering the house, which was raised five feet off the ground.

"When I walked to the house, I was up to my belly in water," Shope said. "It was bad."

They weren’t the only ones that needed to use watercraft to navigate Centralia. Chiropractor Wade Randall wanted to check the status of his office, so he and three others used a canoe to reach it.

The office escaped damage, but his wife, Lori Randall, said it was tough paddling back at times because the currents from the overflowing river battered their canoe.

Juanita Carballo fled the rising waters early Tuesday morning and was still wearing striped pajama pants, a Peanuts Christmas t-shirt and flip-flops nine hours later. A neighbor woke her at 3:40 a.m. and told her she should leave. Her son-in-law picked her up and brought her to his brother’s house.

She stood on dry ground across the street from her apartment, but she couldn’t cross the running water and had no idea how badly damaged it could be.

"I don’t know how much got in there, but I know it did get in," she said. "I just don’t know."

More photos after the jump:

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Interstate 5 is shut down on the way at exit 88, but Dean and I have found away using some of Washington’s scenic backroads into Centralia (with scenic views of Bucoda and Tenino).

Next stop is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Centralia, which is being used as a shelter.

The omen came in the form of dozens of trucks parked bumper-to-bumper on the onramps and offramps of southbound Interstate 5 and a jammed parking lot.

It was at the Restover Truck Plaza south of Olympia – the final truck stop before the flood-induced I-5 closure in Chehalis – that drivers killed time while waiting for the waters to recede. Many conversed outside or ate at the diner. Most were just trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Raj Sekhon and Surjit Dhillom were among a group of seven drivers leaning against the brick wall

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Photog Dean Koepfler and I were just in Sumner at the Rainier Manor mobile home park. Things looked dry — and empty. The park was issued a voluntary evacuation yesterday, and many people were gone by yesterday afternoon. Most of the cars were still missing Tuesday morning, and the grass and shrubs near the banks of the Puyallup River showed no signs of overflow.

Since there’s not much of a story there, we’re heading back down I-5 toward Centralia.

Updates will follow throughout the day.

Kenneth Shepherd and Rita Trotman had packed up their fifth-wheel trailer. Overnight bags sat atop their table at Rainier Manor, a mobile-home community for seniors in Sumner.

Now, Shepherd said, they’re just going to wait and see.

The Puyallup River is expected to crest at 4 a.m. Tuesday, and that might send floodwaters spilling into the park. The fire department circulated voluntary evacuation notices Monday afternoon. By 5 p.m., the park appeared mostly empty.

If they have to leave, Shepherd said, he and Trotman will camp overnight in the parking lot of the nearby Fred Meyer.

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I talked to residents at the Rainier Manor mobile-home park for seniors in Sumner. Firefighters served them with a voluntary evacuation order this afternoon. Check back in a few minutes for an update.

Louis Grant and Kristian Holle stood by the side of 14th Street Southwest in Puyallup and watched state workers trying to drain their flooded roadway. They both spent most of Monday working to hold off the encroaching waters.

"Ever since I moved out here, my backyard floods," Grant said. "So it’s screwed right now."

Grant also said he’s never seen his front yard so flooded. And the situation wasn’t made any better when he discovered his water pump had burned out since last winter.

Holle, who lives across the street, heard water

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Dave Davis has lived in the 1200 block of 14th Street Southwest in Puyallup for the past 18 years, and he said flooding has been getting "steadily worse" for a decade.

There are several reasons for this, he says. New developments at higher elevations make runoff greater. Flood drains are inadequate and deteriorating. And the city’s decision to raise the street four inches this summer didn’t help.

He’s been telling members of the city government and has largely been ignored.

"The city has known about this problem for ages," he said. "… It’s not been well-maintained

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