Thanksgiving Weather Alert: National Weather Service Warns of Floods, Landslides

Getting ready to travel Thanksgiving morning? Well, the National Weather Service has a warning for you.... or at least a watch. They have issued a flood watch for the Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington beginning Thursday morning and lasting through Friday.

The watch area includes the Portland metro area, the north and central Oregon coast and Coast Range, the central and south Willamette Valley, and the south Washington coast. Track Oregon flood watches here: http://1.usa.gov/1EM7qNl

"Landslides can be triggered by intense rainfall, and landslides and debris flows are possible during this weather," says Ali Ryan Hansen, communications director for the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI).

"Be aware of landslides as a potential hazard and use extreme caution when traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday."

People, structures and roads located below steep slopes in canyons and near the mouths of canyons may be at serious risk. In general, Hansen says, dangerous places include:

- Canyon bottoms, stream channels, and areas of rock and soil accumulation at the outlets of canyons.

- Bases of steep hillsides.

- Road cuts or other areas where slopes of hills have been excavated or over-steepened.

- Places where slides or debris flows have occurred in the past.

For more landslide and debris flow information: http://bit.ly/landslidehazards

Photo Colin Miner