SitRep 1: December 6, 2023, Wednesday

Incident Summary: Western Washington has been drenched by numerous rainstorms over the last few days causing widespread evacuations, flooding, and disastrous/dangerous conditions for drivers, residents, and first responders. First, it was the rain, then the flooding and there are some areas now under land/mudslide watches.

This is a SitRep for December 6, 2023, and updates will be provided each day as time allows, providing alerts, watches, weather updates, closures, resources, and more.

Resources

Incident Cooperators

  • Snohomish County Parks
  • Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management
  • Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office
  • Snohomish County Fire Districts #19 and #21
  • Skagit County Government
  • Washington State Patrol
  • WSDOT Maintenance and Incident Response Units
  • US National Weather Service Seattle
  • Evergreen Fairgrounds (Evergreen State Fair Park)
  • Snohomish County PUD
  • Snohomish County Public Works
  • Stanwood Police Department
  • North County Fire & EMS

Alerts – Warnings

SNOHOMISH COUNTY

Update as of 12/6/2023 1621 hours:

  • SNOHOMISH, SKYKOMISH RIVER. A FLOOD WARNING is in effect now until midnight tonight. (Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)
  • OLD SNOHOMISH-MONROE RD, MONROE. MINOR FLOODING. (Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)

Current Status

FLOOD WARNINGS IN EFFECT

The rainstorms may be over and there will be no flooding shortly, however, due to the impact of heavy rainfall, it is still flooding areas and we are waiting for them to recede back to their banks. Officials would like to remind drivers to not go around traffic closures and water over the roadway signs for their own safety and for those who have to come out and rescue them. Additionally, some drivers are feeling the pain in their pocketbooks for creating preventative tickets being issued by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. They have been actively sharing on “Social Media” the cost of your fate for bypassing their closure signs with $432 in traffic tickets.

SKAGIT RIVER: near Mount Vernon impacting the Skagit County areas.

SNOHOMISH RIVER: In Snohomish and Monroe which is impacting Snohomish County communities.

SNOQUALMIE RIVER: near Carnation affecting King County. NOAA is currently measuring on their river gauge that there is still moderate flooding at a water level of 56.21 feet or 17.13 meters, as of 2030 hours this evening.

Damage Assessment – Updates

SNOHOMISH COUNTY ROADWAYS

On December 5th, Washington State Patrol Troopers and the WSDOT Incident Response Unit were busy with standing water on the roadway due to heavy drenching, causing multiple traffic collisions on I-5, I-405, and SR 530.

Photo Credit: WSP Trooper Kelsey Harding, District 7 PIO.

STANWOOD

A SnoCoDEM drone captures devastating flooding homes between Stanwood and Florence in the early morning hours on December 6.

The top photo below depicts how a working farm is surrounded and flooded by water, while some of their vehicles are on a grassy knoll. The roadway is mostly submerged underneath all of that mud and debris.

Stanwood got hit really hard with their fair share of floodwaters.

Many worked countless hours putting in extra time, and work and giving it their all saving parts of their City as much as they possibly could.

Photo Credit: (R) SnoCoDEM

GOLD BAR

A drone with the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management (SnoCoDEM) surveys the damage over a flooded area around the Cannery Levee in Gold Bar.

Image (below) taken near Moonlight Dr on December 5th by a drone operated and owned by the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management.

MONROE

1621 PT. PARTIAL CLOSURE. Old Snohomish-Monroe Road. Water over the roadway. (Source: Monroe PD)

SILVANA

Snohomish County Fire District 19’s Station 95 began taking on water on December 5, when firefighters were overwhelmed by rushing water inside their station forcing them to move their fire apparatus to higher ground and making it challenging to respond to calls for service.

Photo Credit: SCFD19.

SOUTH FORK STILLAGUAMISH RIVER

Flooding in a neighborhood along the South Fork Stillaguamish River. The image was taken on 115th St NE on December 5th. (below).

Photo Credit: SnoCo DEM

SR 530

This is what SR 530 looked like on the morning of December 5th near Arlington and Twin Rivers Park and yet drivers still chanced driving through the deep waters on the roadway.

They must have great insurance and lots of money to replace their vehicles. Drivers place themselves in danger as well as those who may find it challenging to wade or boat across to save them. This is what they train for but why put yourself in that situation to begin with.

Photo Credit: Snohomish County Parks.

On December 5, 2023, the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Northwest stationed out of the Astoria (OR) area deployed a helicopter crew to rescue five souls from flooding near Rosburg, Washington State. They rescued four people from a flooded house and one who was trapped on top of a truck in rushing and dangerous waters. They were transported to the air station in stable condition.

Photo Credit (clip of video which can be found at this website): US Coast Guard

https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/3607939/coast-guard-rescues-5-people-from-flooding-conditions-near-rosburg-washington/

(c) 2023 NW Fire Blog