MOUNT VERNON — Substitute teacher Lindsay Hopkins stood with a friend in front of the sandbags that lined Main Street. Hopkins, who worked for nine hours Tuesday filling the bags, watched as the river inched higher to see if the sandbags would hold.
"It’s like waiting for a grand finale," Hopkins, 22, of Bellingham, said.
Hopkins and a crowd of onlookers waited. And when 11 p.m. came, officials predicted that the water wouldn’t go higher.
"We win," Hopkins said. "We beat the river."
Officials feared that the Skagit River would crest at 38 feet at 11 p.m. Tuesday, threatening to flood downtown Mount Vernon. But the river reached about 36 feet and looked as though it wouldn’t get any higher, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But before that hour struck, many in Skagit County waited for the worst at makeshift shelters.
At Skagit Valley College cafeteria, the American Red Cross helped residents evacuating from floodwaters.
"I could see the river was approaching the barrier, and at that time I knew I had to leave," said Billy Reeder, 53, who lives in west Mount Vernon.
Reeder stands to lose his business, Twin Willows, if floodwaters hit his 3-acre property where he grows rare perennials. He left his home at 5 a.m. Tuesday.
"We’re sitting here not knowing, that’s the worst part," Reeder said.
In downtown Mount Vernon, where residents had built a sturdy wall of sandbags, Pamela Music, 49, and Paul Hoey, 54, talked about how they were evacuated Monday night from their home east of Concrete.
"If we would have waited five minutes, we wouldn’t have been able to get down the driveway," Music said.
The water reached about 3 feet high as they backed their van down the driveway with their dogs and cats inside.
"We just barely made it," Music again. "We got out, that was the important thing. It was scary."
Both were staying with family on Tuesday.
"I’m thinking about moving," Music said.
At a law office on Main Street, the six lawyers who share the business spent the day preparing for the floodwaters. They survived the floods in 1995, but said they built up their wall of sandbags higher this time, making a "do-it-yourself" dike, said lawyer Mike Winslow, 49.
His son, Eli, 18, a senior at Mount Vernon Christian School, and about 20 other students helped build the revetment.
He and the other lawyers planned to stay until the river starts receding. They removed computers and files from the building just in case. Winslow added that the lawyers recently renewed their flood insurance.
At the Skagit County Department of Emergency Management, volunteers prepared to stay through Tuesday night.
"I think the community is as well prepared as can be expected," said Dan Berentson, a spokesman for Skagit County. "This community does a good job of fighting floods. There’s been a lot of cooperation today."
He said hundreds of volunteers have helped throughout the county bagging sand, creating a wall of sandbags 4 to 5 feet high between downtown Mount Vernon and the Skagit River following the second torrential rainstorm in the Pacific Northwest in less than a week.
In 1990, 20 rivers flooded in Western Washington, displacing thousands of people and doing $160 million in damage. In 1995, the area flooded when the river reached 41.57 feet in Concrete and 37.4 feet in Mount Vernon.
"If this flood reaches its projected level, it will beat those floods," Berentson said. "There’s some anxiety, but the county, cities, dike district and volunteers have done a great job to prepare. It seems like people are ready."
Thousands of people have been evacuated from low-lying areas of Burlington, Mount Vernon and other areas near the Skagit River. Residents of low-lying areas near Concrete and Marblemount also were evacuated, said spokesman Ric Boge with the Skagit County Public Works Department.
They stood behind a wall of sandbags filled by more than 1,700 volunteers who worked all day to build the wall, said John Pell, a sector engineer with the Corps of Engineers.
"They came out and were begging for sandbags to put down," he said. "I watched them building the wall. They did a real good job."
Among the people watching the river were families evacuated earlier from their homes.
"There’s not much you can do. You’ve done everything you can, you just have to hope," said Cindy Verge, 45, whose family was evacuated at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
"I hope it’s not as bad as they think it’s going to be," she said.
Also in Skagit County, the Corps of Engineers was working on a logjam at the south fork bridge over the Skagit River. The bridge will be closed through 5:30 a.m. today. One lane of the road will periodically be open. The corps also was watching a berm on Fir Island that showed signs of weakening and seepage.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.
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