by Elliott Wilson
Workers for Sakuma Bros. farms work on a pumping system in a flooded area of a field off Chuckanut Drive near Cook Road on Tuesday.
Rain poured into the already swollen Skagit River Tuesday, and with more showers in the forecast today, local officials prepared for the threat of minor flooding.
The river was expected to crest just shy of 34 feet at the Concrete gauge this morning and reach nearly 30 feet in Mount Vernon Thursday evening, according to the National Weather Service. The service also issued a flood watch — signaling the flooding is likely but yet under way — for Skagit County and much of Western Washington through Friday.
By noon Friday, the river level was expected to fall back to the mid-20s in both locations as showers diminish.
Dan Cain, director of the county Emergency Management Department, said an emergency operations center will be staffed 24-hours-per-day until the river level drops but that flooding will likely be contained to the lowest lying areas, such as Cape Horn, Thunderbird and Shangri-La.
Cain said the flood called for Wednesday and Thursday is forecast to be similar to the mid-November flood that drenched low-lying areas.
Predictions for that flood were higher than those for the flooding forecast today and tomorrow, he said, but the November flood came in just shy of the levels predicted now.
Other threats posed by the rainy forecast, said Cain, are roof collapses, mudslides and avalanches. He said homeowners still under snow should be vigilant as rain pours down, creating heavy slush on roofs.
Hillsides could also be prone to slides, and avalanches are possible in the mountains, he said.
In Mount Vernon, Public Works Engineering Manager Blaine Chesterfield said the city’s mobile floodwall and sandbags will likely go unused. He said the river would have to rise to 32 feet — more than two feet higher than the forecast — for the wall to be necessary.
Chesterfield said the city will continue to monitor the river level, but that the current forecast as well as water storage space still left in nearby dams mean Mount Vernon will likely stay dry.
• Elliott Wilson can be reached at 360-416-2147 or at .
