I have received confirmed information this morning that the COGOP churches of Washington State will not be holding their annual youth Winter Retreat in White Pass this year. The retreat would have commenced tomorrow and run through Sunday.
Staff made the decision to cancel yesterday after hearing White Pass would most likely remain closed well into the weekend. US Highway 12 is closed points west of Randle due to major flooding from the Cowlitz River and many side roads’ bridges have been washed out. The rain has also caused avalanches and flooding from the Cascades, effectively shutting down White Pass.
This is the first time in Washington COGOP history that such a large-scale event has been cancelled due to weather. Anyone there with any more info, please post in the comments if you feel inclined.
WHAT?! That sucks man! Winter Retreats were the best man!
-Jas
It is nuts. Obviously though, people’s personal safety would be a top priority.
From the south, you could get as far as Mary’s Corner on Hwy 12 — about four miles east of I-5 — before you’d have to turn back. And even then, you couldn’t go any further north because WSP is blocking I-5 through Chehalis/Centralia.
From the north, you can’t get through on I-5, and Hwy. 7 through Morton is a lake.
Even from the east side of the state you can’t get up White Pass as I heard they have the road closed at Naches.
It’s a really sad situation.
Not cool dude. Are they going to reschedule or what?
I talked to Paully today and he said it would be really hard to do so, simply because everyone had already taken time off for this weekend, expecting there to be a retreat to work…it would be incredibly tough to get people to take extra time off (plus that for summer camps), and all at the same time too.
I talked to Paully today and he said it would be really hard to do so, simply because everyone had already taken time off for this weekend, expecting there to be a retreat to work…it would be incredibly tough to get people to take extra time off (plus that for summer camps), and all at the same time too.