Exhausted rescue teams continued technical rescues in Western Washington’s Snoqualmie River Basin as record flooding leaves thousands stranded.
A Pacific Coast phenomenon known as an “atmospheric river” was intensified by unseasonably warm weather, resulting in heavy rainfall across Puget Sound and the western Cascade Mountains. Historic and near-historic flooding from Skagit to Pierce County has forced up to 100,000 people to leave their homes. The National Weather Service described the situation as “catastrophic.”
Near Bellevue, Washington, the Snoqualmie River Basin was swamped by floodwaters flowing downstream from Snoqualmie Falls. In the farming town of Duvall, a new all-time record was set, with the scale on the city’s public flood gauge completely submerged. Residents who remained in Fall City and Carnation were cut off from the rest of the world, while Duvall remained accessible only via a 2.5-hour detour that included rutted, muddy dirt roads…