Both the South and North forks of the Stillaguamish River have overflowed their banks. We live in the Cascade Foothills NE of Arlington. My kids go to school in Arlington. Those two rivers lie between our home and their schools. 🙁
I’m stranded at home. This kids are stranded at school (two different ones several miles apart) and I can’t get in touch with my wife, who is 20 miles away in Mt. Vernon.
Update: 15:40 PST: The rain has let up. It is still windy. Sue finally called me and is heading towards the schools. I have no idea if she’ll be able to get back tonight though. Both of the western approaches to our area, SR530 and Jordan Road up from Granite Falls are closed. The only other way is through the mountains via SR20 up the Skagit valley, then up the Suak River to Darrington and down. That however is a drive in excess of 100 miles and along two other rivers that could be flooding!
Update: 17:20 PST: Sue has the boys, and they found literally the LAST hotel room in Arlington. I am officially stranded. SR 530 is closed at milepost 22 (pictured above) and at milepost 67 between Darrington and Rockport.
There is one possible way out, via a gravel road and a steep climb up to stilly valley’s north wall and out via Lake Cavanaugh. I have no idea of the condition of the bridge over the river on the Lake Cavanaugh road though.
Update: 19:30 PST: The larger portion of the Goolsbee family are doing well, having eaten out and now watching TV in their hotel room. ME on the other hand are sitting here alone, and am forced to deal with all the family pets… the majority of which I am allergic to. 🙁
To add uncertainty to the mix it is raining again… pretty hard.
There must be a huge amount of rain to take Washington State rivers to flood stage.
Well, rain here in the lowlands, and snow up in the hills and mountains. Follow that with a rapid melt of the accumulated snow and you get flooding. Pretty common in the autumn here.
Sorry to hear your troubles, Chuck. The creek we live on actually has water in it again, about as close as we’ll get to flood at the moment, I think.
Your first link to more pictures appears to be broken.
The link works, it is just slow. They are on my old 266Mhz server. 😉
hope the water goes away soon for you all Chuck – those 4WD vehicles have their uses in that sort of weather then!!
Jerome
I get a “the connection was reset” error. I’ve seen plenty of flooding, though, in my time here. 🙂