The rain mercifully began to let up Saturday in Washington state, but that may have been of little solace to Liz Trujillo.
Her four horses grazed in her front yard, a few feet from the inflatable snowmen and sequined reindeer. A lone goat roamed nearby. And, in all directions, completely surrounding her house, were deep flood waters.
For the next few days, Ms. Trujillo said, she would have an island home.
“I think everybody is just in shock,” said Ms. Trujillo, 52, as water lapped against her driveway in Burlington, Wash. “I’ve lived here my whole life, but this is just beyond anything anyone has seen.”
Thousands of residents in northern Washington spent Saturday assessing the damage during a respite from the severe storm that had lashed the region. Earlier this week, rivers overflowed their banks, roadways became streams and homes and farms were submerged.
Yet, remarkably, no deaths or serious injuries had been reported in the state as of Saturday afternoon, said Gov. Bob Ferguson of Washington.
That was thanks, in part, to the emergency crews that already had conducted at least 250 water rescues across the state.
“I think our prayers have certainly been answered so far,” Mr. Ferguson said at a news conference in Skagit County, roughly 60 miles north of Seattle, as officials began to clear debris from roads.
President Trump approved an emergency declaration for Washington state on Friday, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist with the immediate recovery. Mr. Ferguson, a Democrat, said that he had spoken by phone with Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary and former Republican governor of South Dakota, and praised her outreach.
In Burlington, Ms. Trujillo’s garage and basement were still underwater, including a vintage 1971 Cadillac convertible that was fully submerged. It had been a 50th birthday present for her husband.
Ms. Trujillo said that she and her family had planned to wait for the waters to recede, and that they were relying on supplies that neighbors and others had delivered to them by boat.
Nearby, local emergency shelters filled with immigrant farmworkers who had fled their homes near Skagit County’s vast farmlands, said Flora Lucatero, the executive director of a local nonprofit that works with farmworker families.
For them and others in the region, this week’s storm resurfaced painful memories and the familiar task of recovery from the major flooding that swept the region in 2021.
In Sumas, next to the Canadian border, Debra Huskey zigzagged paststanding water to get to the elementary school where she works as a custodian.
As she drove, Ms. Huskey, 56, saw the signs of devastation she never thought would return so soon. Neighbors power washed sludge from their homes. Excavators piled debris onto lawns. Salvageable goods were stuffed into U-Haul rental trucks. Water-soiled furniture stretched across the curb.
Once Ms. Huskey reached the school, the smell from the flood four years ago came rushing back to her. The mixture of stale water, oil residue, rotting wood and mildew overwhelmed her as she opened the gymnasium door. Contractors were already removing the floor.
“Right away that smell comes back. You never lose that,” she said. “The PTSD for some of these people is going to be awful.”
Elsewhere in Sumas, Carla Robinson, her husband and her cat, Thatcher, spent two nights sequestered on the second floor of their home.
By the time the water receded from the floor below on Saturday morning, it was clear that little could be salvaged. The appliances, the drywall and the flooring would need to be replaced. Insurance money would surely not suffice. That was also the case the last time her home flooded.
This time, Ms. Robinson, 52, and her husband, Terry, contemplated whether it was worth continuing to live in a flood zone, even if it meant leaving the place they had called home for 26 years.
Some areas in northern Washington fared better than others. In Mount Vernon, just south of Burlington, officials said the town’s flood wall held, protecting downtown businesses even when the nearby Skagit River crested.
All told, more than 100,000 residents were ordered to evacuate the region this week, and many began to return Saturday to inspect their properties. But the flood threat was not over, officials stressed at the news conference on Saturday, even if the worst had likely passed. Another atmospheric river was expected to bring additional rain on Sunday and Monday and possibly to cause rivers to once again rise.
The next threat was concerning enough that the sheriff in Chelan County, about 150 miles east of Seattle, issued an evacuation order for the area known as Stehekin Valley.
In Burlington, though, residents were undaunted as they tried to see what they could save. Mario Rincon, 41, sorted through his garage full of Halloween decorations, checking each of his seven electronic skeletons for damage. Deep water surrounded much of the home. A 12-foot skeleton dressed as Santa Claus still stood on the stairs to the home, the only one to remain untouched.
“If we didn’t pay crazy flood insurance before, we’re about to,” Mr. Rincon said.
At the home of Michael Stansberry, a pastor at Sonrise Christian Center in Burlington, all was movement and noise Saturday morning.
The basement and first floor of the home had been completely flooded. As the waters receded, more than 20 people from his church showed up to form an impromptu renovation crew. Parishioners and their families — as well as Stansberry’s five children — ripped out drywall and insulation, threw soaked carpet scraps into a trailer and attempted to pull off a major renovation in a single day.
“We stayed at Grandma’s last night, but we might be in here tonight,” said Mr. Stansberry, 48. “So that’s why we’re trying to get everything. All the wet stuff, all the mildew, all the sewer-contaminated stuff has to go.”
Upstairs, board games sat drying on the dining table, and sneakers aired out on a tarp nearby. The few surviving remnants of a baseball card collection Mr. Stansberry had been building since he was 9 sat in a small plastic box.
Mr. Stansberry said he never imagined waters would rise as high as they did. He figured that even 100 sandbags would not have been able to stop the water from rushing in.
“How can you really prepare?” he asked.
Orlando Mayorquín is a Times reporter covering California. He is based in Los Angeles.
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