For Eddie Wicks and his wife, going to bed under a field of bright sunflowers beside the Snoqualmie River on a Washington farm didn’t raise many alarms about what was looming in the sky. They’d spent thirty years in Duvall—a small town northeast of Seattle that routinely faced spring surges—so they were used to the rhythm of floods and usually emerged unscathed.
On that night, however, the water began to rise at a pace that had never hit their heads before. As they lifted their two donkeys to higher ground and herded eight goats to the outside kitchen, the river surged four feet in just four hours. “Hours, not days,” Eddie remembered, “and in those four hours, it had climbed four whole feet.”
By mid‑afternoon, the flood took over their home. Deputies from the King County Sheriff’s Office marine rescue squad came to the rescue, lugging the couple, their dog and even their prized goats out of the house on a small boat that crossed the field‑turned lake.
The storm had been caused by an unusually heavy atmospheric river that dumped over a foot of rain across parts of western and central Washington in consecutive days. Rivers swelled, roads were washed out, and rescuers had to haul people from roofs and stranded cars. The record‑high flood levels are expected to start easing by Saturday, but officials warn that the water will stay high for several more days, leaving the threat of levee failure or mudslides alive—and more rain is projected for Sunday.
Thankfully, no deaths have been reported yet, although the full cost of the damage remains unknown. Video footage shows entire neighborhoods submerged under water from the flood.
The flood forces prompted dozens of rescues. High‑walled neighborhoods were protected, but some stretches of the Skagit River rose to a new record of 37 feet in Mount Vernon—just a few inches higher than the previous peak. Rescue personnel knocked on doors in homes filled with the water‑filled Snohomish River, and helicopters whirred overhead to lift two families from rooftops in flooded Sumas, as whatcom County chief Frank Cain Jr. confirmed. In Deming, two houses slipped into the Nooksack River as the riverbed eroded, yet no one was inside when the collapse occurred.
A record number of residents—tens of thousands in the Skagit River floodplain north of Seattle, including Burlington—received “go now” orders on Wednesday, prompting the state’s first-ever emergency declaration signed by President Trump. Governor Bob Ferguson notified the public of the new measures. By Friday morning, muddy streams had burst a slough and flooded homes, prompting officials to tighten warnings for Burlington.
On Friday morning, volunteer National Guard teams creaked open hundreds of doors in Burlington, telling people about the evacuation notice and helping them move into shelters. As water levels eased by late that day, the evacuation order was lifted for parts of the town.
The Skagit River runs through the hard‑rocked Cascades before widening across fertile farmlands and tulip fields, feeding in towns like Burlington—situated on its delta and especially exposed to flood risk.
The flood‑wall across downtown Mount Vernon has held firm, but some residents still endured water pools of 2–3 feet deep inside their houses, according to police spokesperson Michael Lumpkin. Mario Rincón, who had stayed at a hotel with his three‑member family, was unable to return to their Burlington house because the water rose halfway up the first floor. His comment on the situation was bleak: “It’s going to be a few days before the water recedes.”
At the border, communities such as Sumas, Nooksack and Everson—with a combined population of roughly 6,500—were inundated and the Sumas crossing was closed. Mayor Bruce Bosch acknowledged on social media how anxious residents were to get back but urged everyone to “Hang in there.”
In King County, crews worked through the night on a levee along the Green River in Tukwila, filling a sinkhole that threatened to breach, as County Executive Girmay Zahilay described. Volunteers packed sandbags along the Skagit near Mount Vernon on December 12 to help hold back the surging waters.
Rescue crews continue to reach people via boat and helicopter. While scientists can’t conclusively link a single weather event to climate change without more data, many agree that a warming climate generally produces more intense rainstorms, floods, mudslides, droughts and wildfires—exactly the kind of severe weather that unfolded in Washington this week.
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