Residential flooding, road washouts and minor landslides hit Edmonds Monday, after near-record rainfall drenched Puget Sound and the rest of Washington state.
Over 5.25 inches of rain fell on Edmonds between Sunday morning and Monday afternoon, helping create the worst flooding since the Holiday Blast of 1996-1997, city officials said. Well over 3 inches fell Monday morning alone.
“Swamped is kind of a funny word, but it is appropriate,” Mayor Gary Haakenson said as rain continued to fall Monday. “It is a soggy mess out there.”
Puget Sound contributed to the mess. An especially high tide helped drown the city’s waterfront, turning sections of Harbor Square and SR 104 into a mini-lake.
Tuesday night, the City Council approved a maximum of $1 million in emergency repair funds, but no comprehensive damage report was available.
Some businesses on the waterfront closed, but flooding was minimal. Only one Harbor Square building flooded, Port director Chris Kuess said. The marina itself was not damaged in any way.
Homes throughout the city experienced flooding, in some places trapping residents in their homes. Residents near Lake Ballinger and Old Woodway Elementary were especially hard hit, but major flood damage was reported throughout the city, officials said. No injuries were reported.
Power outages blinked throughout the city Monday as utility crews worked to repair flood damage. Power was even out at City Hall for portions of the afternoon, officials said.
Haakenson declared a state of emergency Monday afternoon, allowing both the city and its residents to seek disaster relief funding.
A few of the city’s roads could be closed for the foreseeable future, officials said.
Two roads will be closed until crews can repair damage, said Noel Miller, the city’s public works director.
“We have got our hands full,” he said Tuesday.
A short section of Olympic View Drive near Perrinville could be closed to traffic for a month after storm water washed away a sidewalk and a small section of the popular thoroughfare, Miller said. The city expects to use disaster funding to begin repairs as early as Dec. 10, he said.
Citizens have criticized recent development plans in the area, suggesting 27 new houses near Seaview Park would only cause larger storm water problems.
The city also closed a stretch of 190th Place Southwest while debris and damage from a landslide was cleaned up. It was unclear when the street would reopen, Miller said Tuesday.
Perrinville’s roads were hardest hit. In addition to the one-third mile stretch of Olympic View Road that is completely closed, a small section of 76th Avenue West is reduced to one lane, Miller said.
Overflows from Lynnwood’s sewer system gushed up from pipes beneath 76th Avenue West, creating a river of muck that eventually dumped into Perrinville Creek. Before running into the creek, however, the overflows ate away at the street, causing a minor washout, officials said.
Repairs to Olympic View Drive could cost roughly $250,000, and repairs on 76th Avenue West could be in the neighborhood of $300,000, Miller said.
The Lynnwood sewer problem has some history.
Lynnwood’s main sewer line runs underneath 76th Avenue West, but it doesn’t have the capacity to handle large storms.
When it overflows, as it did Monday, sewage runs into the homes of Edmonds residents and Perrinville Creek.
“We have asked them several times to make (the sewer line) bigger to handle all that runs through there,” Haakenson said. “It is a problem. We would like to help solve it.”
Lynnwood is working on the problem, said Bill Franz, Lynnwood’s public works director.
The city has money in its capital facilities plan to pay for fixing the sewer main under 76th Avenue West, he said.
He said the wastewater treatment plant normally handles 5 million gallons of sewage and water daily; on Dec. 3, it handled triple that amount — more than 15 million gallons.
In addition to the other damage reports, landslides were reported on North Meadowdale Road in north Edmonds, and on 104th Avenue West, near 244th Street Southwest, in south Edmonds.
The rainfall was extreme. About 5.25 inches of rain fell in the city, according to data taken from the city’s treatment plant, officials said.
Still, the city seemed to fare better than most of its neighbors, Haakenson said. The city never opened its emergency operations center, he said.
Roads in the south Snohomish County region were hit hard.
Crews closed 17 roads in Lynnwood, and seven others in Mountlake Terrace, including 220th Street Southwest, a major road connecting Highway 99 to I-5.
Mountlake Terrace had 5.9 inches of rain from 6 a.m. Sunday morning until midnight Monday, said Mike Shaw, Mountlake Terrace’s storm water program manager.
Water levels in Lake Ballinger, which is fed primarily through creeks that run through Mountlake Terrace, were as high as they have been since the 1996-1997 storm, Shaw said.
Lynnwood/Mountlake Terrace Enterprise editor Oscar Halpert contributed to this report
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