MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Washington was under a state of emergency Thursday from a barrage of torrential rain that has sent rivers flowing over their banks, caused mudslides to crash down on highways and trapped people in floodwaters. Tens of thousands of residents were under evacuation orders.
Heavy rain continued to fall over parts of the state, prompting rising rivers, road closures, water rescues and suspension of Amtrak trains between Seattle and Vancouver. Rainfall intensity increased in several counties in Washington’s Cascade Mountains, which had seen up to 6 inches of rain in 24 hours. One area, Snoqualmie Pass, picked up an additional 1.7 inches of rain in six hours, the National Weather Service said.
After days of unrelenting heavy rain, Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency Wednesday, warning “lives will be at stake in the coming days.” Some residents have already been told to get to higher ground, with Skagit County, in a major agricultural region north of Seattle, ordering everyone within the Skagit River’s floodplain to evacuate.
Along the river in the city of Mount Vernon, teams were set to knock on doors in low-lying areas Thursday to inform them of evacuation notices, authorities said. Further north near the U.S.-Canada border, firefighters rescued several people from their homes, Sumas Mayor Bruce Bosch said.
Nearly 16,000 customers in Washington were without electricity by midday Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us. A mountainous section of U.S. 2 remained closed due to rocks, trees and mud, with no detour or estimated time for reopening, according to the state transportation department.
Flooding rivers could break records
According to updated projections, the Skagit River was expected to crest at roughly 42 feet in the mountain town of Concrete on Thursday, and roughly 39 feet in Mount Vernon on Friday.
While those projections are lower than previous estimates, Mount Vernon officials were nonetheless urging residents in the floodplain to evacuate.
“That’s still a record flood, and so we’re preparing for that,” Mayor Peter Donovan said. “Today we’re going to be visiting low-lying neighborhoods, residential areas, and getting the word out the best that we can for folks who haven’t responded yet to evacuation notices.”
Flooding from the river has long plagued Mount Vernon, the largest city in the county with some 35,000 residents. Flooding in 2003 displaced hundreds of people.
The city completed a floodwall in 2018 that helps protect the downtown. It passed a major test in 2021, when the river crested near record levels. Water was at the foot of the floodwall as of late Thursday morning, Donovan said.
In nearby Burlington, much of which is in the floodplain, the police department’s Michael Lumpkin said officials were closely monitoring the river, which was high “but well within the dikes” as of late Thursday morning. There have been no rescues in the city so far, he added.
“The overall hope is that the dikes and the systems that we have in place to keep catastrophic flooding from impacting our residents — the hope is that those things work,” he said. “But hope isn’t a plan, so based on the models that we’re seeing … we’re going to keep the evacuation order in place.”
Some are worried that older levees could fail. “It could potentially be catastrophic,” said Ellen Gamson, executive director of the Mount Vernon Downtown Association.
To prepare, business owners have stacked sandbags in their shops and residents have similarly done so to protect their homes.
Officials respond to flooding
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.”
East of Seattle, residents living along Issaquah Creek used water pumps as rushing floodwaters filled yards Thursday morning. Yellow tape blocked off a hazardous area along the creek.
Issaquah resident Katy Bliss said her home’s foundation was safe for now but that a pond had formed in her backyard. “It’s still scary walking around,” she said.
In Sumas, firefighters had to drive through deep water to rescue several people from their homes and transport them to a shelter, said Bosch, the mayor. Earlier on, a flood siren had rang out at city hall and residents were told to leave.
The border crossing was also closed to southbound commercial vehicles to leave more room for evacuations, according to the Abbotsford Police Department.
Authorities across the state in recent days have rescued people from cars and homes, including an RV park. A landslide blocked part of Interstate 90 east of Seattle, with photos showing vehicles trapped by tree trunks, branches, mud and standing water.
Climate change has been linked to some intense rainfall. Scientists say that without specific study they cannot directly link a single weather event to climate change, but in general it’s responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires.
Another storm system is expected to bring more rain starting Sunday.
“The pattern looks pretty unsettled going up to the holidays,” Rademacher said.