Severe flooding in western Washington triggers evacuations in Burlington and Mount Vernon as Skagit River reaches historic levels, with National Guard aiding relief
BURLINGTON: Residents and emergency crews in towns along the rain-engorged Skagit River in western Washington state braced on Friday for potential levee failures while National Guard troops assisted in evacuations after days of severe flooding in the Pacific Northwest.
The entire town of Burlington, a community of about 9,200 people near Puget Sound, was ordered evacuated early on Friday as the river crested to an all-time high of nearly 38 feet (11.6 meters), well above major flood stage, in the city of Mount Vernon just downstream.
“We haven’t seen flooding like this ever,” said Karina Shagren, a spokesperson for the state’s emergency management division. So far there were no reports of casualties or missing people, she said.
The Burlington-Mount Vernon area in Skagit County, north of Seattle, remained an epicenter of widespread flooding caused by days of torrential downpours extending from northern Oregon north through western Washington state and into British Columbia.
The rains were spawned by a string of atmospheric river storms, vast airborne currents of dense moisture siphoned from the ocean, that swept inland over the Pacific Northwest, including parts of northern Idaho and western Montana.
Month’s worth of rainfall
Rainfall totals varied widely, but much of the region received 6 to 60 inches of rain over the past seven days, with a foot or more in a few spots, according to the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.
“That’s easily a month’s worth of rain that’s fallen in just a week,” said Rich Otto, a meteorologist at the center.
Even before Burlington residents were forced to flee, the Skagit River flood plain as a whole, home to about 78,000 people, was already under a Level 3 evacuation notice urging residents to immediately seek higher ground. Evacuation notices covered an estimated 100,000 people statewide.
National Guard troops and sheriff’s deputies went door to door to facilitate the evacuation, and some were seen paddling stranded Burlington residents to safety in inflatable river rafts through muddy floodwaters.
Flood control levees appeared to be holding firm immediately following the river’s historic crest, testing their strength for the first time since repairs to the earthen embankments were made following the last major flood in that area in 2021, state officials said.
‘Not over yet’
Rains abated Friday. But the National Weather Service posted a flash-flood watch for the river basin downstream to the mouth of the Skagit, where it drains into Puget Sound, citing the potential for levee failures under heavy pressure from the high water.
“It’s not over yet,” U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell said at a news briefing with Governor Bob Ferguson and others announcing that President Donald Trump, acting at their request, had signed an expedited federal emergency declaration for the flood zone.
Cantwell said the declaration would hasten federal support in clearing roads, removing debris, assisting in evacuations and providing emergency shelters for evacuees.
Forecasts called for a lull in precipitation going into the weekend, with another atmospheric river expected to produce another wave of showers Sunday night into Monday, Otto said, renewing flood hazards.
A levee failure would greatly magnify widespread flooding already occurring across much of western Washington state. Aerial footage broadcast by CNN showed communities inundated in deep, brown water with many homes submerged almost to their rooftops.
South of Skagit County, National Guard troops also were dispatched to deliver food and check on stranded residents in a number of communities isolated by flooding in adjacent Snohomish County, Shagren said.
Two towns were likewise transformed into islands in neighboring King County, where dozens of flood victims were rescued over the past two days, some from the tops of cars, or from trees or from homes, officials said.
King County Executive Girmay Zahilay told reporters an overnight flood patrol team discovered a sinkhole at the edge of one levee, and “got it immediately filled,” averting a potential collapse.
The flooding washed out or forced the closure of dozens of roads throughout the region, including most of the Canadian highways leading to the British Columbia port city of Vancouver.
Several lengthy stretches of the BNSF Railway, a major freight line serving the Pacific Northwest, were also shut down on Thursday. – Reuters
