A state of emergency has been declared, and tens of thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes in western Washington afterhistoric rain left rivers at record levelsacross the state.
Skagit County has ordered everyone in theSkagit River 100-year floodplainto evacuate to higher ground, as authorities have forecast 18 major floods and 15 moderate floods.
Gov. Bob Ferguson said late Wednesday, "catastrophic flooding is likely," and, in astatement on social media,said 100,000 people could face evacuation orders. He urged people to heed the authorities' orders and listen to official advice.
The Skagit River is expected to crest at a record 47 feet in the mountain town of Concrete — the threshold for a major flooding event along the Skagit is 32 feet. Some rivers are expected to reach their highest levels early Thursday.
Almost 20,000 energy customers were without power early Thursday morning, about half of them in Chelan County, according to PowerOutage.us.
At least 300 National Guard Troops have been mobilized to the state, and local emergency response crews with boats were activated. Stranded people in vehicles were rescued overnight in Fall City.
"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 during a public meeting Wednesday night.
There has been more than 10 inches of rain in parts of Washington and northwest Oregon in recent days, and conditions are expected to continue into early Thursday before finally weakening.
"While the rain will diminish tonight into early Friday, ongoing major river flooding and the threat of landslides will continue across portions of western Washington state and northwest Oregon for several days," the National Weather Service said in an update early Thursday.
Authorities have not confirmed the number of people ordered to evacuate, but estimates range from 75,000 to 100,000. Parts of Mount Vernon, a city of about 35,000 people north of Seattle, long plagued by flooding, are in the evacuation zone.
Areas also under evacuation orders are parts of the town of Sedro-Wooley, Orting, Ebey Island, land around the Puyallup River and Sumner.
A flood wall was installed in Mount Vernon in 2018 to protect low-lying downtown areas, and it protected the city during heavy rains and high river levels in 2021. But locals now fear the wall could be breached.
Ellen Gamson, executive director of the Mount Vernon Downtown Association,told The Associated Pressthat "it could potentially be catastrophic."
The Lummi Nation, which includes several Native American tribes in Western Washington based west of Bellingham, declared a state of emergency.
"Continued tidal influence, rainfall, or additional flooding may result in the Reservation becoming temporarily isolated until conditions improve," Vice-Chairman Terrence Adams wrote in a Wednesdaypress release.
The cause of the emergency is a persistent atmospheric river, which has dumped an extraordinary amount of rain on the Pacific Northwest this week, leaving rivers as much as 15 feet above their normal levels.
People across Sangit County were preparing on Wednesday by filling sandbags and shutting off utilities ahead of the expected deluge.
The American Red Cross has opened several volunteer-led shelters across the state, and their locations can be foundhereor by calling 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767).
