Flooding from an atmospheric river storm forces evacuations across Washington and British Columbia, with major roads closed and rivers rising
SNOHOMISH: Heavy rains drenching the Pacific Northwest triggered flooding on Thursday across much of the region from Oregon north through Washington state and into British Columbia, closing dozens of roads and prompting widespread evacuations.
The intense downpours began earlier in the week, swept into the region by a storm system meteorologists call an atmospheric river, a vast airborne current of dense moisture funneled inland from the Pacific Ocean.
Western Washington state bore the greatest brunt of the storm, with flood watches posted across the Cascade and Olympic mountains and Puget Sound, as well as for a northern slice of Oregon, a region home to some 5.8 million people, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.
The same storm system brought heavy showers and flooding to western Montana and an edge of northern Idaho.
Roughly 100,000 residents in western Washington were under “Level 3” evacuation orders urging them to immediately move to higher ground, the bulk of them in rural Skagit County north of Seattle, said Karina Shagren, spokesperson for the state emergency management division.
Shagren said swift-water rescue teams had been deployed across the region, but there were no reports of casualties or of people missing or stranded in the flooding. So far, levees and dikes were holding, she added.
The Weather Service said the storm had dumped 5 to 10 inches (12.7 to 25.4 cm) of rain over wide swaths of the Pacific Northwest, with 72-hour totals reaching more than a foot as of Thursday along the western flanks of the Cascades.
“It’s a lot of water,” Shagren said, even for a region accustomed to soggy weather conditions.
The worst flooding was reported along the Snohomish, Skagit and Puyallup rivers. Authorities said dozens of roads were closed due to overnight flooding in Snohomish County, where emergency teams conducted a number of rescues on Thursday.
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson issued a statewide emergency declaration on Wednesday to hasten federal disaster aid amid forecasts of catastrophic flooding and rivers expected to crest at historic levels.
Vancouver highways shut down
In British Columbia, most major Canadian highways leading to the Pacific port city of Vancouver were shut down due to floods, falling rocks and the risk of avalanches, local authorities said on Thursday.
“This situation is evolving and very dynamic,” said the Transport Ministry of British Columbia, the province where Vancouver – the country’s largest port – is located.
“Drivers are cautioned that other provincial roadways could be closed with little or no notice,” it said in a statement. Five of the six highways into Vancouver have been closed, although the main route to Seattle is open.
Access to Vancouver relies largely on a limited highway and railway network that crosses the Rocky Mountains, making it vulnerable to severe weather.
In late 2021, an atmospheric river dumped a month’s worth of rain in two days on southern British Columbia, triggering floods and mudslides that killed four people, cut off rail access to Vancouver and caused more than C$500 million ($363.35 million) in damage.
Vancouver is a major outlet for resource exports, including potash, coal, forestry products, pork and beef.
The atmospheric river storm was expected to subside later on Thursday, but the Weather Service warned that lingering rains continued to pose a flood threat across the rain-saturated region. – Reuters
