Key Highlights
- Fire officials northeast of Seattle said rescue crews used inflatable kayaks to pull people from stranded cars, and carried another person about a mile (1.6 kilometers) to safety after they were trapped in the woods by rising water.
- Washington Gov.
- Bob Ferguson said in a post on the social platform X on Tuesday night that the state’s Emergency Operations Center had moved to its highest activation level because of the rain and wind. Forecasters warned that the worst was still to come, with some major rivers expected to crest later in the week.
- The Skagit River near Concrete, which is northeast of Seattle, was forecast to rise more than 15 feet (4.6 meters) above major flooding levels by Thursday, which would break a record, according to the National Water Prediction Service. Harrison Rademacher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Seattle office, described the atmospheric river soaking the region as “a jet stream of moisture” stretching across the Pacific Ocean “with the nozzle pushing right along the coast of Oregon and Washington.”The National Weather Service forecast several days of heavy rainfall along the coast and more than a foot (30 centimeters) of new snow in the northern Rockies in northwestern Wyoming.
- Flood watches were in effect, with scattered flash flooding possible along the coast and into the Cascade Mountains through midweek. Along Interstate 5 between Seattle and Portland, firefighters conducted five rescues for people who tried to drive on flooded roads, including a semitruck driver, said Malachi Simper, spokesperson for Lewis County Fire Protection District #5.
