EVERETT — People across Snohomish County woke Wednesday morning to the roar of chainsaws clearing fallen trees, while volunteers elsewhere filled sandbags and braced for the worst of the flooding.
The day after Tuesday’s severe storm saw flood waters rise and recede. Roads remained closed, with toppled trees, downed powerlines and small lakes over the pavement. Power outages persisted in homes, businesses and schools, though Snohomish County PUD cut the number from 150,000 to 45,000 by Wednesday evening.
The storm had a little bit of everything: heavy rain, whipping wind, swollen rivers, even a blast of hail. One man was killed Tuesday when a tree fell on his car while he was driving near Monroe.
Few communities from Index to Stanwood were spared damage. Cleanup could take several days.
Wednesday was a time of phone calls to insurance agents for crumpled cars and battered roofs. For those without power, it meant cleaning out fridges of spoiling meat and milk, filling up the yard waste bin with a first helping of broken branches, and dreams of a warm shower. Rapidly rising water
Near Stanwood, flood water rose with unusual speed early Wednesday morning, turning lowland homes into islands and submerging roads along with any vehicles left behind.
Water reached the railroad tracks downtown, near the intersection of 270th Street NW and Florence Road. More than 30 volunteers filled and hauled sandbags to shore up the line between the Stilliguamish River and businesses.
At the park-and-ride on nearby Marine Drive, a car went from dry to three feet underwater in an hour early Wednesday morning, Mayor Leonard Kelley said. Only the top letters of street signs were visible above the water by noon, when he joined volunteers at the tracks.
“It’s the usual river rising at the same time we have high tide,” he said. “But with all of the volunteers and folks here, I think we’re going to be OK.”
By early afternoon, the water began receding. An estimated 50 homes were hit or surrounded by flood water and a hovercraft team had to rescue two people in vehicles stuck on flooded roads Wednesday morning, Fire Chief John Cermak said
The flooding was “worse than I’ve seen,” Stanwood High School junior Daniel Newcomer, 16, said. He and Wade Grant, also 16, were in their second-period class Wednesday when their teacher said volunteers were needed to sandbag.
The boys’ own homes were safe, but Grant has a friend whose house in the lowlands was surrounded, he said. By helping the community, he felt he was also helping his friend.
Between Stanwood and Silvana, Megan Dascher Watkins and her family had a few hours to move cars and equipment uphill. When she heard about flooding near Granite Falls Tuesday afternoon, she knew Stanwood was next. Her property flooded in 2003, 2006 and 2009. The worst was 2009, and this week’s flooding was comparable to that, she said.
“They said 100-year floodplain when we bought the house, which in real estate terms must mean every three years,” she said. “We were overdue.”
She expects she’ll see more flooding this year. Every flood is different, and this one swept in quickly.
“It started to come in around midnight,” she said. “You could hear it rushing. It came really fast.”
Snohomish County rivers crested near record highs. The Skykomish at Gold Bar reached 22.23 feet, its third-highest level on record. The Stillaguamish at Arlington had its fifth-highest crest at 20.5 feet and the South Fork of the Stilly hit 20.4 feet, its third-highest crest.
In Monroe, garages and lower floors at the Sky River Apartments were inundated by knee-high water as the Snohomish River rose overnight.
Water began pouring into the complex parking lot late Tuesday. “Everybody came down and started moving the cars,” said Carlos Gomez, 32.
All but two were moved in time, he said.
The river crested at 18.7 feet near Monroe at 8 a.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service reported. The river has crested higher than that a couple of times in the past decade.
Downstream, the city of Snohomish’s Riverfront Trail was closed off and partially underwater.
People peered over railings on First Street to watch logs, tires and other debris float by.
Kathy Kuhlman of Everett grew up in the area. She stopped by the river to take a gander after lunch. To her, it was more of a curiosity than a threat.
“We just came out to check it out,” Kuhlman said.
The river crested at 30.9 feet near downtown Snohomish at 11 a.m. Wednesday. That’s roughly two and a half feet below the highest level recorded, 33.5 feet in 1990, and the tenth-highest on record.
Cleanup begins
Major highways, including U.S. 2 near Gold Bar and Highway 530 in Arlington, had to close Tuesday and remained that way into Wednesday due to standing water and fallen trees. U.S. 2 reopened Wednesday from Gold Bar to Skykomish, but the highway remained closed for cleanup to the east, up to the summit of Stevens Pass.
Some areas outside of Gold Bar were without power for 24 hours, said Laurie Fenner, who has lived on the Wallace River about 17 years. A tree went down across May Creek Road and tangled in a power line.
“We came through pretty unscathed. The wind took down a wall of our little shed but it was ready to go anyway,” she said. The river “came up and it went down pretty fast, so we got lucky. That was pretty intense, that downpour.”
She had peanut butter and graham crackers for meals Tuesday and Wednesday. It seemed rather difficult to cook by propane under candlelight, she said.
Two Sultan-area businesses were seeking help with cleanup. The River House cafe in Index lost most of its roof, said Debbie Copple of the Sky Valley Chamber of Commerce.
“They are beginning the tear-off today and anticipate that they’ll be working on it until Saturday,” she said Wednesday. “They could use able-bodied, strong folks who can help on a roof. Their phones and Internet are still down so the best thing to do is just show up if you can help.”
The New Peking Garden Chinese Restaurant also was looking for help. It was their first flood season, and there was lots to scrub.
Tuesday’s storm also led to school closures and late starts.
Schools were reported closed Wednesday in Everett, Marysville, Mukilteo, Lakewood, Arlington, Index, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, South Whidbey and the Northshore School District. Other districts had isolated closures, late starts or limited bus routes due to blocked roads.
The Everett and Marysville school districts expected to operate on a normal schedule Thursday. Information about specific districts is posted at www.flashalert.net.
Sizing up the damage
In Marysville, street crews worked through Tuesday night and Wednesday to clear more than 100 fallen trees. In Everett, two crews worked 12-hour shifts Tuesday and Wednesday to deal with roughly 120 trees in city right-of-ways.
SNOPAC, the 911 center in Everett, saw an abnormally high number of calls. The agency asked people to stop calling 911 to inquire when power would be back on, or for anything other than an emergency. The non-emergency calls created a backlog and “big problems,” Executive Director Kurt Mills said.
Calls also came in for car accidents or wires down. Many crashes were the result of drivers trying to cross intersections while signals were out, Everett Fire Marshal Rick Robinson said.
The Washington State Patrol reported 53 crashes in Snohomish County from the time the storm began Tuesday morning until daybreak Wednesday, trooper Mark Francis said. There were 149 calls for service, mostly downed trees, disabled vehicles and traffic lights out.
Things are expected to dry out and get cold over the next few days. Scattered showers Wednesday evening weren’t expected to add much to the rivers, National Weather Service meteorologist Johnny Burg said.
Rain is forecast to return Monday after a relatively dry weekend. The winds also have mellowed out. They peaked at 57 mph at Paine Field at 12:41 p.m. Wednesday.
County Executive John Lovick signed an emergency declaration about the storm late Tuesday. It authorizes the use of emergency powers to respond to storm-related problems and will help initiate the process of seeking federal or state recovery assistance. Gov. Jay Inslee took a similar action for all of the state’s 39 counties.
Snohomish County officials were just beginning to size up the extent of the damage. Emergency management director John Pennington surveyed the hardest-hit communities by helicopter. They included Index, Sultan, parts of Gold Bar, areas east of Granite Falls, and the frequently inundated Three Rivers Mobile Home Park near Clearview.
“From the air, it was abundantly clear that he water came through the eastern part of the county at an amazing velocity,” Pennington said.
Reports still were coming in from the Stanwood and Silvana area along the Stillaguamish River, where more damage was expected.
County officials are asking people to take pictures of damage, if it can be done safely. That includes high-water marks inside homes as well as anything hit by trees.
“Be very cognizant that power lines may be down and still active,” Pennington said.
Pictures can prove useful when filing insurance claims and conveying information to the county.
Rikki King and Dan Catchpole also contributed to this report.
More
Snohomish County opened a hotline for homeowners and businesses to report damages associated with the flooding or the windstorm. The number is 425-388-5088. To qualify for state or federal support, damage must be uninsured, but county emergency management officials are encouraging people to report all damage.
Updated information from the county was being posted at http://snohomishcountywa.gov/180/Emergency-Management.
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