Let the mop-up begin. Everywhere but along the lower Snohomish River, that is.
From the river mouth at Everett nearly 20 winding miles upstream to this town of 7,250 residents, the Snohomish was the last major area of concern Friday as near-record floodwaters receded elsewhere in Washington state.The Snohomish receded from a crest of 33.1 feet Wednesday night, but then it rose again. It was forecast to crest at high tide about noon Friday, said Mike Razey, senior coordinator of Snohomish County's Department of Emergency Management.
"This is an extended crest," he said. "It never has gone very low."
Dikes were holding Friday morning around Ebey Island, just east of Everett and about 25 miles north of Seattle, partly because of three dike and levee failures downstream, said Mike McCallister, the department's volunteer training coordinator.
The state was pounded by heavy rain three days in a row this week, pushing rivers over their banks throughout the western part of the state. Many schools, highways and railways remained closed Thursday, but a cold front moving across the state sharply cut rainfall and also reduced the rate of snow melting in the mountains.
The situation also eased in neighboring Oregon, where a mudslide that had blocked the coastal highway was cleared. Authorities warned that standing water on highways still made driving treacherous.
The Washington towns of Duvall and Carnation, isolated for a day by flooding in the Snoqualmie Valley, were accessible again Thursday.
"We did about three days' worth of business in one day. It was incredible," said Bob MacKay, assistant manager of the Cherry Valley Family Grocer, the only grocery store in Duvall.
On Fir Island, at the Skagit River delta in the northwestern part of the state, hundreds of volunteers plugged gaps in earthen dikes with sandbags and gravel Thursday to keep the fertile farming area from filling up like a bathtub.
"I had the day off and I couldn't not do it," said volunteer Dan Crookes, whose own home is safely above flood level.
Dike patrols were maintained through the night on Fir Island, devastated by record flooding in 1990, and upstream at Mount Vernon as the floodwaters slowly receded.
Gov. Mike Lowry has declared a state of emergency in 16 counties.