City, county and state agencies scrambled to keep roads open and flooding to a minimum as the South Coast endured a brutal wind and rain storm Tuesday night through Friday.

Oregon Department of Transportation crews began clearing landslide debris from the northbound lane of Highway 101 about 11:30 a.m. Thursday near Pistol River. The lane was reopened by early evening.

However, ODOT crews had a bigger task on hand after  Carpenterville Road washed away at mile 357, near the intersection with Cape Ferrelo Road. Brian Watjen, transportation maintenance manager for the South Coast, said state crews would begin repairing the road Saturday or Sunday after the proper engineering approach had been determined.

 “The road is completely gone,” he said. “It is completely washed out.”

Brookings Public Works Director Loree Pryce said their employees prepared for the oncoming storm by cleaning catch basins and doing other preventative maintenance.

“Overall we didn’t suffer any damages,” she said. “The wastewater treatment plant endured quite a bit of inflow and was at capacity, but was performing well.”

Brookings City Manager Gary Milliman called the Public Works Department’s effort to keep water moving along drainages “an outstanding job.”

He added that Brookings Police Department personnel and those from the Curry County Sheriff’s Office planned for possible evacuation along the Chetco River.

In addition, Brookings Fire and Rescue Chief Bill Sharp kept Milliman informed Thursday night about conditions along North Bank Chetco River Road, which was never closed.

“City staff also assisted the Red Cross with preparing to open a shelter for people displaced in the unincorporated area by high water,” Milliman said.

Several Red Cross volunteers spent Thursday night at Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church, where cots had been set up to accommodate anyone who had to flee flood waters.

However, volunteer Theresa Bangs said Friday that no one showed up, although preparations were in place.

In Gold Beach, Hunter Creek Road near the Oregon State Police office was closed to traffic because of deep water over the roadway. Some people with pickup trucks or other vehicles with high clearance managed to get through, but most motorists who approached the scene turned around.

Gold Beach City Administrator Jodie Fritts was closely monitoring water quality as rains progressed. She urged residents to conserve water.

“We are using the water in reservoirs at this time because we can’t produce enough sediment-free water right now to run off the plant,” she said Friday. “We have plenty of water in the reservoirs for general use, but if the rain continues into next week it will draw them down.

“We want to avoid a Boil Water Order if at all possible.”

As the storm approached Tuesday, a weather warning was issued from the National Weather Service via the NIXLE alert system. About 25,000 messages went out – including every landline phone in the county and to those who had voluntarily signed up to get alerts on their cell phones.

As with the Brookings Public Works Department, maintenance crews from Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative did some preventative work that kept electrical outages to a minimum during the storm.

Christine Stallard, CCEC marketing and membership manager, said more than $1 million in tree trimming and removal during summer months paid off during recent days.

She said the utility experienced most of its storm-related outages in the Coquille area, where winds were strongest. Crews were at work in Coquille, Port Orford and Gold Beach on Wednesday, Stallard said.

“The main problem in Brookings was from a large tree that came down and took out a major distribution line,” she said.

Outages from that incident were confined to CCEC members north of Brookings in the Cape Ferrelo and Eggers Road area.

Stallard wasn’t sure how many Brookings-area residents were without power, but estimated that 2,500 people lost service throughout the county during Wednesday and Thursday.

The utility began getting notifications of outages beginning at 4 a.m. Wednesday, she said.