CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Highway 34 will remain closed tonight after officials said the flooding has grown worse.
Oregon Department of Transportation officials said water from the Willamette River is flowing onto the highway, and the flooding stretched a mile and a half overnight. The floodwaters currently extend from Colorado Lake Drive to Van Buren at First Street.
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RELATED: ODOT closes Highway 34 near Corvallis
KEZI 9 News spoke with Corvallis residents who stopped by the area to take photos and videos of the flooding.
"It's more like, well, part of living in the Willamette Valley," said Shannon Thompson, a Corvallis resident. "So, all I think when I look at it is all that top soil everybody's going to get."
At this point, officials don’t have a cost estimate for the damage. They said they’ll have to wait for the water to recede so they can evaluate conditions. It’s possible the shoulder has washed out in places, and there could be undercutting which could cause the road to cave in.
"When I first saw it (the flooding) in person, I was sitting there like, that's a lot of water across the highway at once," said Jonah Measeles, a Corvallis resident. "I've seen it come up to the highway at certain points before, but never this high."
If you are traveling in the area, highways 20 and 99W are alternate routes.
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