SNOHOMISH — The nearly 10 inches of rain that soaked the mountains since Saturday bloated local rivers, closed roads and halted trains.
Monday’s high water sent the curious to crowd river banks and cut people off from their homes, but apparently didn’t cause much damage.
The final act of the wet winter storm was expected to play out around 3 a.m. Tuesday in Snohomish. That was when the Snohomish River was predicted to crest at close to 31 feet, about 6 feet above flood stage.
While a respectable flood, that is far from a record.
Mark Craven, whose family farm is 3 miles south of Snohomish, spent part of Monday sizing up the river.
“Everything looks good,” he said. “There is some minor flooding, but nothing out of the ordinary.”
The flood waters were expected to recede Tuesday and the National Weather Service in Seattle was even predicting a little sun by Wednesday. Colder temperatures also should lower the snow level to a more seasonal 1,500 feet.
“Most rivers have generally crested,” weather service meteorologist Dennis D’Amico said late Monday afternoon. “Things are on their way down in most places.”
In Sultan, the flooding Skykomish River closed a stretch of First Street between Main and Birch streets Monday, but didn’t pose many other problems.
“It is better than I expected, given all the rain,” city administrator Deborah Knight said.
In a 72-hour period starting Saturday, a total of 9.4 inches of rain were recorded at Spada Lake. The reservoir is located in the mountains upriver from the town. Between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Monday, Spada Lake apparently was the wettest place in the state, with nearly 2.5 inches of rain.
Sultan resident Tina Mencia on Monday waited out the flood in town with her three daughters, 6 to 16.
They couldn’t reach their home because of road closures Sunday after visiting her parents in Woodinville.
Her husband managed to wade home through flood waters Sunday night. It was the second time in two months that Mencia was stranded by high water.
“I hope the water recedes soon,” she said.
The raging Skykomish River came within a few feet of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line, prompting the railroad to stop trains about two miles west of Skykomish.
About 20 freight and Amtrak trains use the route each day between Spokane and Everett.
At the Three Rivers Mobile and RV Park along Elliott Road outside Monroe, some people were packing up and preparing to leave. Others already had cleared out over the weekend. That’s when Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies went door to door to warn people about the heavy rains and rising rivers. The park is vulnerable to flooding and the scene of rescues in recent years.
It was a more peaceful scene in Monroe, where several people gathered along the river bank on the south edge of town.
Patricia Rodriguez and Roberto Cardenas, who live at the Sky River Apartments in Monroe, had already moved their cars to higher ground and wondered if they would need to make arrangements to stay with friends overnight.
“It is getting near” that level, Cardenas said.
John Xenos of Monroe worried the flooding would take out a favorite walking path. But he didn’t want to risk checking it out.
“It’s not a good day to get into the water,” he said.
The federal Army Corps of Engineers was closely monitoring levees across the county for potential damage, said Tammy Doherty, deputy director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management.
The state Department of Transportation placed a crane on the U.S. 2 trestle east of Everett. Workers were using it to untangle logs that often snag under the trestle’s support columns during high water.
The crane likely will remain in place through Tuesday afternoon, Kris Olsen, a transportation department spokeswoman, said.
In Arlington, dozens of people stopped at Haller Park to check the speed and height of the often rambunctious Stillaguamish River.
The river’s temper was the subject of lively debate Monday morning. Some people predicted flooding at Arlington by afternoon. Others said it wouldn’t be as bad as the December flood.
As things turned out, the river hopped its banks in the usual places near Silvana, but people living there took it in stride.
Arlington emergency management coordinator Chris Badger sat in her truck, keeping a close eye as the river clawed its way up the boat launch area of the park. The Arlington food bank sits a couple feet above Haller Park. In December, the back entrance was sandbagged to prevent water from seeping into the food bank’s storage area.
“Our main concern here is always the food bank,” she explained.
The National Weather Service tracks flooding on local rivers and offers predictions of what to expect on its Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service site. Meanwhile, Snohomish County operates a similar site that links to real-time stream data and road closures.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
Reporter Gale Fiege contributed to this story.
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