It rains a lot here... its something we just get used to.  I enjoy it when it rains -- its what I moved here for!  But, sometimes it rains a bit too much, and today was one of those days... with all the rain we'd been getting in the last week, the ground is saturated, so all the rain we got today ran off, and into the rivers, which quickly filled up, and went into flood stage.

In our neighborhood, we have a small lake.  On one end of the lake, a small dam, set up for water retention normally sits, quite a bit above the waterline... but today, it was actually being overrun, and water was running through the flood ditch, and into the green belt, where another water retention pond is set up.  Not a big deal in the big picture of things, but its still an interesting thing to see.

News reports erupted, and I got a lot of emails from the USGS, NWS, and other agencies telling me that there'd been flood warnings posted, along with flow rates exceeding flood levels.  Three counties declared states of emergency, and my hometown activated its Emergency Response Center... it was an interesting day, to put it mildly.

We live up on high ground, up in the foot hill country of the Cascades, some 1100 feet above sea level.  In the 30 years our house has been standing, its never been flooded... so the likelihood of it happening is pretty slim.

The Snoqualmie SHOT up, starting just before midnight, and quickly rose from its normal of about 2000-2500 Cubic feet of water per second, to about 44 thousand!  Pretty incredible numbers!  It looked as if it was heading back down, but then it seemed to level off, and creep upwards again.  It could be higher than that, actually... but the gauge could be flooded.

Its the most flow that we've had on a November 13th since the gauge was put in, 49 years ago

North Bend, WA – Heavy rains and flooding are occurring in the outlining areas of North Bend forcing some road closures. Approximately four people who drove into the Moon Valley area earlier today to help potential flood victims were cut-off by rising waters and unable to drive out on their own. Firefighters with Eastside Fire & Rescue had to shuttle these victims by small watercraft along SE 92nd Street between 428th Ave. and 436th Ave. SE. Crews donned dry suits and Protective Floatation Devices (PFD), loaded up the victims, and guided the boat across five feet of standing water.

Evacuations for this area are not expected, but residents of the Moon Valley area are asked to “shelter in place” by staying indoors for their safety and to monitor their television and radios for any updated information. Information websites are also available and listed below.

Motorists are urged to be cautious when driving and should stay tuned to their radios if needing to travel during flooding conditions. Motorists are also reminded never to drive around road closure signs or through any standing water.

Roads currently closed for the areas of North Bend include: North Fork Rd. SE at Sunday Creek Bridge, 17 miles northeast of North Bend, SE 92nd St. between 428th Ave. SE and 436th Ave. SE, 428th Ave. SE from SE Reinig Rd. to SE 79th St./North Fork Rd. (Use posted Hancock Timber/Weyerhaeuser Main Line Road as alternate in an emergency).

 

Well, after reading that, we couldn't pass THAT up... we headed out and took a drive, mostly to check out Snoqualmie Falls... we KNEW there had to be a lot of water going over them, and when that happens, its typically pretty impressive.

First I went up to Olalie State Park...the Snoqualmie was VERY high,
and you can get pretty close to the river at that park...

Here it is on a "normal" day... This was in June, about 5 months ago.

Here it is today... you can see the leaning tree is still standing, although its root ball is under water...

Here are the Olalie Falls... back in June...

And today... a wall of water coming down the riverbed...

Water was flowing where I took the picture from in June...

Here's a shot of the Snoqualmie last April, when the river was a bit higher than normal from the beginning snowmelt...

Here it was today, from the same location... (captured from a video I took...)

From there, I went to pick up the shadow lady, and we drove down to the Snoqualmie Falls... the rain and the mist from the falls made it difficult to get a good picture... it was the heaviest flow I remember seeing at the falls.

In snoqualmie, there was some pretty serious flooding...  By the train museum, the walking path was under a
couple feet or so of water

Heading in to town, we noticed the Snoqualmie River had risen to be quite close to overtaking the highway...

The King Street Parking lot had been converted to an emergency sandbagging station... LOTS of activity going on!

The townsfolk were loading up sandbags, and hauling them out to their homes in an effort to beat back the Snoqualmie

In North Bend, they've put up levies along the river... it still had about 3 feet to go on them before things got dicey... When we got home, the charts were at the start of the flat area, so I thing North Bend was spared... I plan on heading out that way tomorrow, so we'll see.

 

Here's a video clip I put together...

Higher Res - 640x480

 

 

Images from the news:

Longview:

 

Gold Bar

by 399th in Gold Bar

399th in Gold Bar

 

Skykomish

A rescue of a family after the river surrounds their home

 

 

Mt Rainier... the Kautz Creek has overflowed its bank, and is flowing down the roadway instead.

 

Sultan:

A good sense of humor is important... this was on the feed store...

Aberdeen

This is the Wishkah Road in Grays Harbor County... the river is on the left side of the roadway, normally...

cleaning up a mudslide on the Wishkah Road in Grays Harbor County

 

Here's a clip from the King5 News website:

1:22 p.m.: Snoqualmie’s mayor has declared a State of Emergency due to heavy flooding. Flooding is beginning to occur in the downtown Snoqualmie neighborhoods of Pickering Court, Walnut, Spruce, Park, Mountain Avenue, and Mountain Drive. Evacuation is highly recommended in those areas.

Residents in the floodplain of Snoqualmie should make all emergency flood preparations possible. Sandbags and sand are available for filling at the King Street parking lot downtown Snoqualmie.

Temporary daytime shelter is available at the Snoqualmie Fire Station at 37600 SE Snoqualmie Parkway. An overnight shelter, if needed, will be established at Twin Falls Middle School at 46910 SE Middle Fork Road in North Bend.

Snoqualmie River near Snoqualmie

This is a park alongside the river in Snoqualmie...

 

Cosmopolis... a mill pond dam eroded and failed, flooding the town of Cosmopolis...

 

Deja Vu... Its happened before...

2007.12.06 - Storm Pictures

2006.11 - November Flooding

October 24, 2003 - A look at the rain!

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