MOUNT VERNON, Washington (AP) — Residents packed up valuables and prepared to flee rising rivers in western Washington state on Wednesday as a new wave of heavy rain swept into a region still reeling from a storm that triggered rescues and road closures a day earlier.
In the Pacific Northwest, an atmospheric river was swelling rivers toward record levels, with major flooding expected in some areas including the Skagit River, in a major agricultural valley north of Seattle. Dozens of vehicles were backed up at a sandbag-filling station in the town of Mount Vernon as authorities warned all residents who live within the river’s 100-year floodplain to be ready to evacuate.
In the Mount Rainier foothills southeast of Seattle, Pierce County sheriff’s deputies conducted rescues at an RV park in Orting, including helping one man in a Santa hat wade through waist-deep water. Evacuations were ordered in part of the town after officials said there was a significant threat to life or property amid extremely high river levels and concerns about levees upstream on the Puyallup River.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency Wednesday in response to the intense flooding.
“It’s time to pay attention,” said Gent Welsh, adjutant general of the Washington National Guard. ”There are going to be some serious impacts to communities around this state in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Flooding rivers could break records this week
The Skagit River is expected to crest at roughly 47 feet (14.3 meters) in the mountain town of Concrete early Thursday, and roughly 41 feet (12 meters) in Mount Vernon early Friday morning.
Those are both “record-setting forecasts by several feet,” Skagit County officials said.
Harrison Rademacher, a meteorologist with the weather service in Seattle, described the atmospheric river soaking the region as “a jet stream of moisture” stretching across the Pacific Ocean “with the nozzle pushing right along the coast of Oregon and Washington.”
The weather service expects several days of heavy rainfall along the coast and more than a foot (30 centimeters) of new snow in the northern Rockies in northwestern Wyoming. Flood watches were in effect, with scattered flash flooding possible along the coast and into the Cascade Range through midweek.
Cities respond to flooding
Authorities in Washington knocked on doors to warn residents of imminent flooding in certain neighborhoods, and evacuated a mobile home park along the Snohomish River. The city of Snohomish issued an emergency proclamation, while workers in Auburn, south of Seattle, installed temporary flood control barriers along the White River.
Farther south near the Oregon border, the city of Longview on the Columbia River opened a severe weather shelter Tuesday night. Along Interstate 5 between Seattle and Portland, firefighters on Tuesday conducted five rescues for people who tried to drive on flooded roads, including a semitruck driver, said Malachi Simper, spokesperson for Lewis County Fire Protection District 5. Authorities rescued a family of six from their home in Chehalis, he said, where the road was covered by about 4 feet (1.2 meters) of water. No one was injured.
Another storm system is expected to bring more rain starting Sunday, Rademacher said. “The pattern looks pretty unsettled going up to the holidays.”
Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.
