SNOHOMISH — Micah Middleton hauled a pressure washer down a mud-caked road just outside city limits Friday afternoon.
About 24 hours earlier, the same stretch of road east of the Sixth Street bridge was covered by a torrent of dog-biscuit brown water from the nearby Pilchuck River. In a matter of hours, the river pulled back into its banks like a deflated balloon leaving behind a coat of brown sludge, squishy lawns and damaged homes.
Middleton had borrowed the pressure washer from his neighbor to blast some of the muck off his garage, hit by several feet of water in what some officials have begun referring to as the biggest flood in the Snohomish River valley on record. Middleton’s house sat high enough above the rushing water to avoid damage inside.
“It’s pretty cool to see that kind of force,” he said.
Just down the road, some of neighbors fared far worse. Water snaked its way into homes and garages on lower ground, in places up to five feet deep. On Friday, a section of chain link fence lay on the ground, pushed down by the water. Grass along ditches and in pastures looked as if it had been pressed flat by a giant, sweaty hand.
Tom and Stephanie O’Brien’s home didn’t get wet inside but they lost plenty in their garage. The water came up fast Thursday afternoon. The family lives to the east of the Pilchuck River. They were keeping their eyes open for flooding in that direction, when the water instead came barreling down from the north. The river apparently jumped its banks upstream.
There was so much current in the floodwater that the O’Briens tied a garden hose to their waist, like a climbing rope, and anchored it to their home. They wanted to make certain they weren’t swept away.
Friday afternoon, two pumps moved water from a low point on the street into an empty field. The O’Briens’ granddaughter, Elizabeth, 5, got her pants wet playing in a puddle that appeared to be about 30-feet wide, and covered the road.
When Stephanie O’Brien woke Friday morning and saw the water was rapidly receding, she had one thought: Thank god.
“We were praying,” she said. “We were lucky to get by with what we had.”
In downtown Snohomish, the river still ran fast and high Friday afternoon but the flow had dropped noticeably compared to the previous day. Picnic tables at flooded park stuck out of the rolling waters like skeletons. A pile of wood, five feet deep, plugged the walkway below the American Legion Building. The walkway around First Street still had a holiday atmosphere, with people leaning over the rail to look at the water zipping by and taking pictures along the bridge.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com
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