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Washington declares a state of emergency in wake of floods
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by Amy Judd | January 9, 2009 at 02:47 pm
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The state of Washington has declared a state of emergency in the wake of floods that have hit the area in the last week. Due to the heavy dump of snow followed by the rapid melting, the rivers in the area are not able to accomodate all the water, and are therefore flooding their banks and the surrounding areas - such as roads, neighbourhoods and even highways.
Residents near the Snoqualmie River have never seen it rise so high before and more than 30,000 people living in the area have been asked to evacuate their homes.
Major highways have been shut down, and numerous rescues have had to take place. There is also the continued threat of mudslides and avalanches taking place throughout the state.
"This appears to us to be the largest requested evacuation that anyone here is aware of," said Mark Stewart, a spokesman at the state Emergency Operations center. "We still have rivers going up, so it's really hard to determine what the scale of the flooding will be."
Because evacuations are voluntary in Washington, Stewart said, there was no way to calculate how many people had agreed to leave their homes. The Red Cross reported that at least 258 people stayed in their shelters Wednesday night.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 15:46 on January 9th, 2009
This was taken off Auburn/Black Diamond Road on Jan 8, 2009. This truck was completed surrounded by flood waters.
HDex Photography has contributed a photo to this story.
at 16:41 on January 9th, 2009
Debris build up next to the Woodinville-Duvall Road.
WestsideCougar has contributed a photo to this story.
at 18:26 on January 9th, 2009
Flood waters covered Highway 20 in several places including this spot with the water over a foot deep.
aywolfpac has contributed a photo to this story.
at 18:55 on January 9th, 2009
Taken from Lions' Club Park in Mount Vernon, WA, on Jan. 8, 2009, about 4:30 PM. At that point, The Skagit River had reached its highest level, Stage 1. So we lucked out THIS time! Our hearts go out to our neighbors in other parts of Western Washington who weren't so fortunate.
SkagitLily has contributed a photo to this story.
at 22:12 on January 9th, 2009
I was out and about taking photos of some of the parks here in University Place. Adriana Hess Wetland Park in particular is a favorite of mine, so I went to see how the pond was faring...there was overflow into the road and the storm drainage pond seemed to be adding more to Morrison pond as well. What was more surprising was that this bench (along with one other nearby) and the path it is on was flooded....I didn't think it was close enough to the other ponds, but there it was!
mistymisschristie has contributed a photo to this story.