Brandon Huber has a lot running through his mind when he pulls someone out of floodwater.
Can they walk? Are they sick? Are there any children? How many patients are there?
“Is there a big snag that’s going to push underwater? Are we going to get pinned up or trapped up against something?” recounted the Snohomish firefighter and water rescue technician.
First responders rescued at least 180 people from floodwaters this week, as days of rain brought rivers to record-high levels and sent rushing water into roads, homes and businesses.
Remarkably, government officials have not reported any deaths caused by floods in the hardest-hit communities. A kayaker died Friday near Seattle’s Ballard Locks, where a nearby resident who witnessed the event said the current was strong after this week’s weather.
By Saturday, as skies dried and rivers receded, residents and business owners across Western Washington started the arduous process of rebuilding what the storm ravaged.
President Donald Trump signed an emergency declaration to unlock short-term help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but it remains unknown whether the federal government will approve longer-term support for rebuilding infrastructure or aiding homeowners. That will happen later, after the state submits a detailed application.
As many breathed a tentative sigh of relief, state and federal officials warned tougher days may still be ahead.
Huber, meanwhile, barely slept this week as he worked with Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue to save people amid historic flooding. County officials ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate as rushing water cut off roads and crept into people’s homes, in some cases turning entire neighborhoods into extensions of the nearby rivers.
Huber recalled one house where his team rescued 10 people. River water had rechanneled to their yard, destroying the road as the rescue team tried to reach them.
“It was getting deeper and deeper by the second,” Huber said. “We just did the same as fast as we could: load them in the boats and shuttle them across.”
It’s physical work. Wading through water. Paddling an inflatable kayak. Pulling people out of the water by hand. Huber estimates he got less than an hour of sleep Wednesday. There weren’t enough beds for everyone on duty, so he tried to catch a few Z’s on a cot in a fire engine bay.
Many around the state worried about lingering impacts from the storm and the week of evacuations. In Leavenworth, floods canceled the town’s famous holiday lights display and Christmastown events — a hit to tourism that could be difficult to recover from, locals said.
Some were grateful the floods hadn’t caused more damage, while acknowledging they were likely among the lucky ones. Others found outright joy in the aftermath, with one teenager in Sedro-Woolley hopping on his family’s Jet Ski to cruise around what is usually the front yard.
Still others were preparing for what would come next. Another atmospheric river is set to hit the region as soon as Sunday evening, bringing more risk that rivers could again overflow. The Skagit River could remain flooded “until late next week,” according to an update from the county issued Saturday.
Reid Wolcott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, warned Saturday: “We’re not out of the woods yet.”
‘The hardest times are coming’
This week’s flooding came very close to being much more catastrophic, and should serve as a warning to prepare for future emergency events, said Brian Park, fire chief at Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue.
At a briefing for the news media and politicians Saturday morning, Park said the flooding impacted families and businesses, with people displaced, homes and infrastructure affected, and many facing uncertainty.
It's not clear yet how much it will cost to rebuild after this week’s flooding.
“As great as this sunny day is, some of the hardest times are coming,” Sen. Patty Murray said at a Mount Vernon briefing Saturday with Gov. Bob Ferguson and Sen. Maria Cantwell.
The news conference was near a floodwall that kept the Skagit River from spilling into downtown Mount Vernon. Murray helped obtain federal money to build the 1.4-mile wall, completed in 2018. Without it, local leaders said this week’s flooding would have been far more devastating.
“The wall behind us changed everything,” Mount Vernon Mayor Peter Donovan said.
Cantwell visited flood-ravaged Whatcom County Saturday, calling for FEMA and NOAA to get boots on the ground and for clearer, faster communication as more storms approach.
In Leavenworth, the city known for its Christmas and Bavarian charm, it was quieter than usual for a Saturday morning in mid-December, as heavy fog hung in the air.
With Highway 2 closed and Leavenworth’s famous holiday lights display and Christmastown events canceled through the weekend, tourists stayed away.
Downed trees lined Commercial Street near the Wenatchee River. Large pine trees took out parts of a metal fence and tumbled over a streetlamp. The river crested at around 17 feet Thursday evening, hitting major flood stage.
Walking along the sidewalk past the debris with her kids, Elisa Esper, 45, said she has lived in the area for six years and has never seen damage like this. While her house didn’t flood, Esper was one of the thousands without power for days.
Esper and her friend Annie Monroe, 45, of Cashmere, Chelan County, both said the floods are the latest ripple in what they call a year of natural disasters. The area saw devastation in September as the Sugarloaf fire swept through the nearby forest. While all these disasters have been scary, both Monroe and Esper said the answer isn’t to move away.
“Earth stuff happens everywhere,” Monroe said.
Business owners, who had already missed several days of work, worried about what the quiet weekend could mean for their bottom line. Most said they could afford to lose one weekend of crowds, but would struggle if the holiday town didn’t bounce back quickly.
“We were dealt a heavy blow, but we are still standing,” said Christina Forchemer-Zucktriegel, 58, who works at Uptown Wine Bar. Forchemer-Zucktriegel worried about her missed income during a season when everyone needs spending money.
‘The deck became the dock’
In Skagit County, residents in flooded-out areas were checking damage Saturday as water and debris still blocked major roads. Thousands remained under evacuation orders.
Gavin Johnson wore rubber boots as he surveyed muddy conditions outside his home in the Clear Lake area of Skagit County, where surging waters had covered the ground a couple days earlier. A neighbor’s house was still isolated by a newly formed temporary lake, burying potato fields and a neighborhood playground.
Johnson was luckier, with his home a little uphill. The floodwaters still poured into his garage, but he said he had time to stack belongings high enough to avoid the worst of it.
Amid an evacuation order, Johnson's wife and younger children left the house during the worst of the flooding, but Johnson and his older daughter stayed behind, watching from their home as the waters rose close and clambering into their outboard fishing boat to get around.
“The deck became the dock,” said Johnson, 38, who owns a remodeling business, calling the whole experience a little bit scary" and "a little bit fun.
“I feel terrible for so many people,” Johnson said. But for his family, “it could have been a lot worse.”
Steve Enter, one of Johnson’s neighbors, had 6 inches of water flood into his house. When the flood warning came, he said he rented a U-Haul and got most of their furniture and other valuables out.
“I don’t think that we’ll lose a lot of items, per se,” he said. “We’re going to have to pull floors out and some drywall out.”
As they washed muddy homes and garages, some residents were making the best of the standing water around their homes.
Justus Top, 13, chugged around on a Jet Ski near his family’s submerged front yard in Sedro-Woolley.
His mother, Heather Top, said: “This was like a dream come true for the kids.”
‘Though the rain has stopped … ’
The rain started Monday, with cities bracing for at least a five-day flood watch.
Over the next three days, the lowlands of King County stayed relatively dry or misty, while higher elevations recorded 9 inches of rain. Parts of Lewis County were drenched with 12 inches, meteorologist Samantha Borth said in an interview Saturday. Up to 15 inches of rain pummeled the Cascades.
The Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area saw record-breaking rain Wednesday, with 1.6 inches in one day, surpassing its previous daily record of 1.5 inches set in 1977. Bellingham also broke its daily record Wednesday with 2.3 inches of rain, beating its previous record for the day of 0.9 inches set in 2014.
By Friday, four major rivers in the region reached record heights, with some cresting 5 feet higher than they ever have before. Another seven rivers nearly reached their highest-ever peak.
A weekend dry spell is expected to give way to another storm system on Sunday and Monday, bringing 4 to 7 inches of rain in the mountains and winds that could reach 50 mph or more.
While such winds might not normally be a problem, Wolcott, the meteorologist, noted the ground is already saturated. That means “soils are extremely loose,” he said. “It does not take 50 mph winds to knock over trees,” he said.
To prepare for the next round, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Saturday it was releasing water from two dams critical to flood management: the Howard A. Hanson Dam on the Green River in King County and the Mud Mountain Dam on the White River near Pierce County.
Both dams saw record pool levels Friday, with the Hanson Dam reaching 1,189 feet at 9 a.m. and the Mud Mountain Dam reaching 1,185 feet by 8 p.m.
“We want to remind the public that even though the rain has stopped, the flooding has not,” emergency management Chief Krystle Walker said in a statement.
Forecasters with the NWS in Seattle expect the “unsettled weather” to continue through Thursday, as rivers “slowly recede” once again after the expected storm starting Sunday evening into Monday.
Already, as some residents return home, other communities are ordering people to leave before the upcoming storm. The Chelan County sheriff’s office issued an evacuation order Saturday for the Stehekin Valley, urging residents to board the ferry out that afternoon.
West of Monroe, at the Three Rivers mobile home park, Ulises Camacho-Mendez, 21, worried about the forecast but planned to stay at his home, which is mounted on stilts, so the water didn’t reach inside. The family lost some things. Camacho-Mendez said they can be replaced.
He believes the worst of the storm has already passed, but, he said Saturday, “we don’t know how bad it’s going to get.”
Inside Noelia Santana’s home in the same mobile home park, much was ruined. Her floors. Her washer and dryer. The carpeting.
“We’re OK,” Santana said Saturday, as she surveyed the damage. “That’s the most important thing.”
Seattle Times staff reporter Taylor Blatchford contributed to this report.
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