A state of emergency has been declared in Washington state as heavy rain and historic flooding have left tens of thousands of residents facing evacuation orders.
Days of torrential and unrelenting rain sent rivers flowing over their banks and prompted Gov. Bob Ferguson to declare a statewide emergency Wednesday, warning residents, “lives will be at stake in the coming days.”
Parts of Washington and northwest Oregon have seen over 10 inches of rain in recent days, while Seattle was hit with 12 to 16 inches in just the past 72 hours.
Residents in some areas were already ordered to higher ground, as evacuation orders were in place for residents along the Skagit River, northeast of Seattle. There, county officials warned, “all residents living within the 100-year floodplain should evacuate to high ground immediately. Do not wait.”
“Catastrophic flooding is likely,” Ferguson warned on social media Wednesday night, noting about 100,000 people were expected to evacuate.
A persistent atmospheric river has dumped historic levels of rain on the Pacific Northwest this week, causing several rivers in the state to rise significantly above normal levels, leading to floods and mudslides. The National Weather Service said river flooding in parts of the state is expected to be “catastrophic.” A flash flood watch will be in effect through Friday for a potential levee failure of the Skagit River below Sedro-Woolley.
At least 300 National Guard members have been mobilized to the state, and local emergency response crews have been activated.
Officials in Skagit County predict the Skagit River will crest at “record-setting levels” within the coming days.
“The city of Concrete is expected to see a crest at 46.13 feet and Mount Vernon is predicted to crest at 42.13 feet. In 2021, the Skagit River set records at 38.93 feet in Concrete and 33.11 feet in Mount Vernon,” officials said in a press release.
“We feel very confident that we can handle a ‘normal flood,’ but no one really knows what a 41, 42 foot river looks like south of Mount Vernon,” Darrin Morrison, a commissioner for Dike District 3 in Skagit County, said Wednesday night.
The county said all nonessential government services would be closed Thursday “due to ongoing flooding and hazardous conditions throughout the region.”
The tremendous rainfall left more than 17,000 customers in Washington without electricity on Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us.
Flooding from the Skagit River has long impacted the region, including Mount Vernon, the largest city in the county with 35,000 residents. In 2003, severe flooding caused hundreds of people to be displaced from their homes.
As a result, the city completed a floodwall in 2018 that was put to the test in 2021 when the river crested at near record levels.
Despite the flood mitigation efforts, this week’s historic flooding could top the wall, worrying locals.
“It could potentially be catastrophic,” Ellen Gamson, the executive director of the Mount Vernon Downtown Association, told the Associated Press.
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