Days of grief and frustration spilled over Tuesday evening in the Alpac Elementary School gymnasium as hundreds of Pacific residents confronted the people they held responsible for the recent flooding that left scores homeless and wreaked millions of dollars in damage.

Present were representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, King County, the City of Pacific, the Department of Health and Federal Emergency Management Agency, among others.

The crowd directed most of its fire at the Corps for releasing without warning more water than it needed to from the Mud Mountain Dam as waters behind the dam reached dangerously high levels.

Yelling, stamping and cheering each neighbor who took the microphone, residents demanded answers and a few heads.

Betty Barr, who lives with her husband, Don, on Fourth Avenue Southeast in Pacific, said she had never seen anything comparable to the recent flooding in the 54 years she has lived in the area.

Why, Barr asked, could the Corps not dredge the White River?

“I’ve never seen a mess like this. We were absolutely swamped,” Barr said. “… Something is wrong with the Corps of Engineers.”

“Why wasn’t Lake Tapps used?” demanded Butte Avenue resident Jere Slingerland. “Those are new culverts up there, why weren’t they used? Why were we flooded? Was that a socioeconomic position? Our houses are only worth $250,000 to $400,000, not a half-million to a million (dollars).”

“I feel like the turmoil me and my son had to go through over the weekend has been completely ridiculous,” said Letisha Miller, a flooded out resident of Megan’s Court. “Not only were we staying on a rescue boat in the sewage water the next day, but our car was submerged in the flood water. So we have been pumping poop water out my car.”

Col. Anthony Wright, District Engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle, conceded that the Corps blew it.

“The reason the town of Pacific was flooded was because we released more water than we should have in the event,” Wright said. The Army Corps of Engineers released water, which we did not think would have the effect it did based on what had happened in the past. I am not pointing the finger at anybody else.”

Pacific Mayor Richard Hildreth said the city is working to get state and federal aid to the stricken residents.

But angry residents shouted out that they couldn’t wait for help.

Among those hard hit were Butte Avenue residents Jerry Miller, lead guitarist for the 1960s rock band, Moby Grape, and his wife, Jo.

“We lost a lot of music, albums, recordings, 40 years worth of memorabilia, whatever Jerry could collect from every rock concert he had ever done, tapes from television shows he appeared on,” Jo Miller said.

“We had to run for it,” Jerry Miller recalled, as he stood in the dark outside the gym Tuesday with his trembling 13-year-old German short-haired pointer, Rumplemintz. “Our neighbor came out in his big truck and said, ‘You better get the hell out of here, fast.’ I grabbed my old amplifier and a few guitars and threw them in the car, and we scattered. By that time, the water had gotten up to the door. We came back the next day and the house was ruined.

“… My mother used to save the magazines and stuff from the ’60s. I lost pictures of me and Jimi Hendrix and me and Robert Plant and a lot of tape recordings that are irreplaceable,” Jerry Miller said. “Had I had any warning, I would have damn sure got those up. It’s insane. Talk about irresponsible. I don’t think anybody is real pleased with those people. It really pisses me off.”

The Millers plan to move, but for the time being they will stay with friends in Tacoma.