GOLD BAR — Blustery weather rolled into the region overnight Friday and brought with it a lot of rain and flooding.
Flood warnings were issued for the upper reaches of the Skykomish River, the Snohomish River near Monroe, and in the Stillaguamish River near Arlington.
Sky Valley got the worst of it in Snohomish County, with the National Weather Service reporting the main channel of the Skykomish rising to 19.3 feet by 3:30 p.m. Saturday, well into the “major flooding” category.
The river is expected to crest at 19.8 feet Saturday afternoon, then fall back down overnight.
The Skykomish valley near Gold Bar and Sultan remains under flood warning through Sunday.
The Stillaguamish valley also saw some high water near Arlington and also on the South Fork Stillaguamish near Granite Falls.
Lt. Brandon Vargas of Fire District 26, which serves Gold Bar, said there hadn’t been any flood-related calls Saturday morning, but that they were keeping on eye out on the Skykomish and its tributaries.
“The Wallace, which usually gives us trouble, is doing pretty good, it’s actually come down since last night,” Vargas said.
The main channel of the Skykomish usually presents more risks downstream in Sultan, he said.
Several photos uploaded to the National Weather Service’s Twitter account purported to show flooding in Sultan, with water covering Mann Road.
A firefighter answering the phone at Fire District 5, which serves Sultan, said nothing was too serious, and the city’s Halloween festival on Main Street was still on.
High winds also caused scattered power outages from 7-10 a.m. throughout Snohomish County, said Neil Neroutsos, a spokesman for the Snohomish County Public Utility District.
There were outages in Everett and north Monroe by Woods Creek, and another one in Clearview in which a tree or tree limb fell on a power line.
“Most of these we’ve been able to get out and find lines that have been impacted and resolve them in 45 minutes to an hour,” Neroutsos said.
About 3,000 customers were affected Saturday morning, and there might be a few more later in the afternoon.
Heavy rain is forecast for the Cascade mountains until Sunday afternoon. Most of the Cascades are under a flood watch, but the heaviest flooding is expected down south near Mount Rainier.
The National Weather Service upgraded its winter storm watch to a winter storm warning until 6 p.m. Sunday.
The state Department of Natural Resources also indicated the rain produced a moderate to high likelihood of a shallow landslide in Snohomish County.
DNR’s online map, at fortress.wa.gov/dnr/landslidewarning, only calculates risk based on rainfall over the previous 24 hours. It does not predict landslides, and only focuses on broad areas.
The weather service warned drivers not to attempt to drive through flooded areas, as it is the most common cause of flood-related deaths in Washington state.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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