Some mayors in South King County say the National Weather Service and King County incited chaos when those agencies warned of “life threatening flash flooding” after the Green River tore a hole in the levee near Tukwila on Dec. 15. County officials countered that those cities were consulted ahead of alerts.
Waters breached the Desimone levee around 11:30 a.m. and within 14 minutes, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning to about 46,000 residents. King County ordered an evacuation to residents and businesses east of the Green River in the Orillia area in Tukwila, Renton and Kent.
Within two hours, officials reduced the area of concern to about 1,100 people and by 6:30 p.m. the weather service’s flash flood warning ended with no injuries reported…