Levees along the Snohomish River did not breach Tuesday as emergency managers feared.
Morning daylight allowed teams from the Army Corp of Engineers to inspect the Marshland and French Creek dikes.
No major levee breaks are reported in Snohomish, Army Corp of Engineers spokeswoman Reta Kauzlarich said.
A large volume of water did flow over the dikes causing valley flooding, she said.
Levees are designed to allow water to overtop to relieve pressure on dikes when rivers flood, she said.
Rushing floodwaters swamped Highway 9 Tuesday evening. In previous floods, high water on the highway was a good sign that a levee had failed, Kauzlarich said.
“In the past, that was an indication of a breach,” she said.
Highway 9 remained closed to traffic in Snohomish at Bickford Avenue and Lowell-Larimer Road Wednesday.
Resulting detours caused traffic to back up on westbound U.S. 2 through Snohomish and onto the trestle leading to Everett.
Traffic also snarled in Monroe Wednesday morning as S.R. 203 remained closed. Crews were able to reopen that route later in the morning.
Meanwhile, Snohomish County officials were working to transition from a response to recovery mode, said Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management Director John Pennington.
Standing outside the emergency operations center at Paine Field, Pennington was relieved to see strong sunlight and blue sky amid the broken cloud cover.
“We’re breathing easier,” he said.
The National Weather Service maintained a flood warning in Snohomish County today. It said showers were likely through Friday when another storm is expected to bring more rain.
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