Soggy forecast triggers flood warning

EVERETT — Heavy rain approaching Snohomish County has triggered the first flood watch of the season.

Starting today, a subtropical storm is expected to slam into the coast, pouring 5 to 8 inches of rain onto area mountains over 36 hours. Everett and Seattle are forecast to receive up to 2 inches.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch in seven Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula lowland counties, including Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties.

“Areas that are poorly drained could have street flooding,” said Jay Albrecht, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The Stillaguamish, Snohomish and Skykomish rivers should stay below flood stage, but officials plan to monitor river levels closely in the coming days.

Emergency officials are urging people who own homes and businesses to clean out gutters and street drains, which can become clogged with leaves and create urban flooding problems. Everett has stepped up efforts to clear debris from storm drains and to remove standing piles of leaves.

City crews also inspected the sewer lines that flooded about 40 north Everett homes after an October downpour, city spokeswoman Kate Reardon said.

John Pennington, director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, said this week’s storm may share some similarities with the devastating Election Day 2006 storm.

The Snohomish, Skykomish and Stillaguamish rivers jumped their banks in that storm, flooding homes and causing nearly $30 million in damages countywide. Major river flooding isn’t expected with this storm, however.

“We started watching this system Sunday evening,” Pennington said. “We started taking a very proactive approach with our cities and internal operational system.”

While it is not expected to be as severe, forecasters say the storm likely will drop a lot of water in a short period of time.

Should flooding occur, people should stay away from rising waters and not to drive through areas of flowing or standing water or around road closure barriers, officials say.

Since November 2006, powerful storms in Western Washington have prompted three federal emergency declarations.

A month after the Election Day storm, a mighty windstorm, called the Hanukkah Eve windstorm, resulted in 15 deaths, knocked down thousands of trees and left 1.5 million people without power.

Last December, a torrential downpour caused a creek in Lynnwood to spill its banks and flood two large apartment buildings on 50th Avenue W. Dozens of people were forced from their homes.

The same storm caused major flooding on the Chehalis River in Centralia, which closed I-5 for four days.

Now is the time to make sure the flashlights, warm blankets and emergency rations are close at hand, officials said.

“Take some time to prepare for possible emergencies and power outages that we know can come with these systems,” said Rob Harper a spokesman for the state Emergency Management Division, Military Department.

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.