MONROE, Wash. — A blast of arctic air swept south from Canada and spread into parts of the northern U.S. on Saturday, while residents of the Pacific Northwest braced for possible mudslides and levee failures from floodwaters that are expected to be slow to recede.
The catastrophic flooding forced thousands of people to evacuate, including Eddie Wicks and his wife, who live amid sunflowers and Christmas trees on a Washington state farm next to the Snoqualmie River. As they moved their two donkeys to higher ground and their eight goats to their outdoor kitchen, the water began to rise much quicker than anything they had experienced before.
As the water engulfed their home Thursday afternoon, deputies from the King County Sheriff’s Office marine rescue dive unit were able to rescue them and their dog, taking them on a boat the half-mile across their field, which had been transformed into a lake. The rescue was captured on video.
The threat is not over
Another round of rain and wind is in store for the region as early as late Sunday, forecasters said.
“Bottom line at this point in time is we’re not done despite the sunny conditions that we have across western Washington at this point,” said Reid Wolcott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“There is yet more to come in terms of wind, in terms of rain, in terms of flooding,” he said. “And Washingtonians need to be prepared for additional impacts, additional flooding, tree damage, power outages, etcetera.”
High winds expected at the end of the weekend and into the first part of week are a concern because the ground is extremely saturated, putting trees at risk of toppling, he said.
Flood victim ready to ‘start over’
In Burlington, a farming community about an hour north of Seattle, the receding floodwaters allowed residents to assess damage and clean up their homes.
Friends and relatives helped empty Argentina Dominguez’s home, filling trailers with soaked furniture, ripping carpet and mopping muddy floors.
“I know it’s materialistic stuff, but they were our stuff. It’s really hard. But we’re gonna try our best to, like, get through it all,” Dominguez said. “We’re just trying to get everything off the floor so we can start over.”
Challenging, costly cleanup
In Snohomish County, north of Seattle, emergency officials Saturday led federal, state and local officials on a tour of the devastation.
“It’s obvious that thousands and thousands of Washingtonians and communities all across our state are in the process of digging out, and that’s going to be a challenging process,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said.
“It’s going to be expensive. It’s going to be time-consuming, and it’s going to be potentially dangerous at times. So I think what we’re seeing here in Monroe is what we’re going to be seeing all across the state, and that’s what’s got our focus right now,” he added, referring to a Snohomish County town.
Arctic blast in Upper Midwest
As the Pacific Northwest begins to recover from the deluge, a separate weather system already brought dangerous wind chill values — the combination of cold air temperatures and wind — to parts of the Upper Midwest.
Shortly before noon Saturday, it was minus-12 degrees in Grand Forks, N.D., where the wind chill value meant it felt like minus-33, the National Weather Service said.
For big cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago, the coldest temperatures were expected late Saturday night into Sunday morning. In the Minneapolis area, low temperatures were expected to drop to around minus-15 by early Sunday morning. Lows in the Chicago area are projected to be around 1 degree by early Sunday, the weather service said.
The Arctic air mass was expected to continue pushing south and east over the weekend, expanding into Southern states by Sunday.
The National Weather Service on Saturday issued cold weather advisories that stretched as far south as the Alabama state capital city of Montgomery, where temperatures late Sunday night into Monday morning were expected to plummet to around 22 degrees. To the east, lows in Savannah, Ga., were expected to drop to around 24 during the same time period.
Bellisle writes for the Associated Press. AP journalists Manuel Valdes in Burlington, Wash., Hallie Golden in Seattle and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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