From my little brother, this morning, his current view from his location on the Skagit Flats. With the accompanying text saying, "Behind every storm is a silver lining."
The Skagit flooding turned out not to be the horrific disaster predicted.
When I asked my brother if he was back in his Skagit Flats house he replied that "I never left."
I thought an evacuation order had been given to those living on the Skagit Flats.
And yesterday morning, upon waking my computer I was shocked to see a screaming headline saying the entire town of Burlington had been ordered to evacuate due to a flash flooding Gages Slough. And that the National Guard was facilitating the evacuation.
Well.
Turns out my old hometown of Burlington did not evacuate. Gages Slough only flooded part of Rio Vista Avenue. And did not flood nearby Lucille Umbarger Elementary, where I did my grade schooling.
When I first read the Gages Slough flash flood news it made no sense to me that this could cause the entire town to need to be evacuated.
Most of the town is at a higher elevation than Gages Slough. No way, I thought, water from that Slough could manage to reach the house I grew up in, a couple blocks north of the Slough.
Another Atmospheric River is predicted to soon hit Washington, well before the current flood waters have receded. And the mountains are currently getting record breaking snow. Sometimes Western Washington floods are caused by a rapid rise in temperature causing a rapid melting of snow.
I fear we may be just in Part 1 of Washington's weather disaster...
