Flooding remains threat in Pacific north-west as Washington declares emergency | US weather
Dangerous floodwaters from historically swollen rivers in the Pacific Northwest remained a major threat Friday, with 100,000 people in the region under evacuation warnings and more flooding expected Sunday.
Heavy rain triggered flooding across much of the region from northern Oregon to Washington state and British Columbia on Thursday, closing dozens of roads and already prompting the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
Heavy rain that began earlier in the week was dragged into the region by a storm system that meteorologists call an atmospheric river; this was a broad air current of dense moisture flowing inland from the Pacific Ocean.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency Wednesday in response to severe weather conditions that caused mudslides and submerged roads and vehicles.
According to the US National Weather Service, flood watches were made for the Cascade and Olympic mountains and Puget Sound, as well as the northern part of Oregon, home to approximately 5.8 million people, while Western Washington state was hit the hardest by the storm.
The same storm system brought heavy downpours and flooding to western Montana and part of northern Idaho.
About 100,000 residents in Western Washington were under a level 3 evacuation order Friday, urging them to immediately move to higher ground, the vast majority in rural Skagit County north of Seattle, Karina Shagren, a spokeswoman for the state emergency management department, said.
Skagit County emergency chief Julie de Losada said about 3,800 evacuees were believed to need temporary shelter.
First responders rescued many people by helicopter in the King and whatcom Districts in recent days.
The worst flooding was reported on the Skagit, Snohomish and Puyallup rivers. State officials said more than 30 highways and dozens of minor roads were closed throughout the region due to flooding.
Many long sections of the BNSF Railroad, a major freight line serving the Pacific Northwest, were flooded or closed due to flooding, the company said, noting that 10 to 17 inches or more of rainfall were reported in many areas.
Some rivers rose several feet above record levels and did not retreat Friday morning. The forecast is for lighter rain on Friday and a mostly dry Saturday, but meteorologists are predicting heavier rain for the region on Sunday.
In British Columbia, five of six Canadian highways leading to the Pacific port city of Vancouver are closed due to the risk of flooding, rockfalls and avalanches, local officials said Thursday.
“This situation is evolving and very dynamic,” British Columbia’s ministry of transportation said.
Access to Vancouver depends largely on a limited highway and rail network that crosses the Rocky Mountains.
While such storms are not uncommon on the U.S. Pacific coast, meteorologists say they are likely to become more frequent and severe over the next century if global warming from the human-caused climate crisis continues at current rates.
