Pilings collapse under Skamokawa house

A house on Skamokawa Harbor slid into the water sometime Friday night or early Saturday morning. Photo by Stevan Morgain.

Skamokawa residents awoke Saturday to discover the house that had sat on cedar pilings over Skamokawa harbor for years had slid into the water sometime Friday evening.

The house is a weekend residence for owner Randy Vogt; he was at his regular Portland residence when the incident occurred.

There was no warning; the weather was mild and the wind calm. The house seemed to have just given up, sagging slowly forward, collapsing the cedar pilings domino style, and sliding into the mud.

“We heard a loud noise around 8 p.m., that was all,” said neighbor Jill Hatier, “then about an hour later we felt the ground shake. My husband and I thought it was a tree coming down.”

Saturday morning, neighbors living around the harbor awoke to see what had happened.

“We ran outside to see the house sitting in the mud,” said John Peterson, a volunteer fire fighter.

Neighbors contacted the sheriff's office, and Peterson tried to notify Vogt.

Neighbors from the surrounding area brought several two-by-twelve inch boards and quickly jury-rigged a ramp to access the porch. Then they began to salvage some of the house’s contents.

The house had already been through one tidal cycle during the night, and its contents were floating around inside. The tide had again turned by 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

“We’ve got about a nine foot tide coming in now,” said Peterson, “and the owner is on his way from Portland and should be here anytime.”

Neighbor Heidi Heywood, also a volunteer firefighter, stood and watched as the water began to creep back into the front room.

“I’m glad Randy wasn’t sleeping when this happened,” she said.

The volunteers had to scramble to try and save what they could. “We did our best to get Randy’s belongings out and put them in a dry location,” said Peterson.

A law enforcement officer arrived and called Wahkiakum PUD to shut off power to the house. The phone company arrived a short while later to disconnect service. By noon the water once again lapped at the eaves.

“I’m no contractor,” said Peterson, “but I’d say the house will have to be removed.”