December 11, 2025 / 12:35 AM EST / CBS/AP
Residents began packing up and fleeing rising rivers in western Washington on Wednesday as a new wave of heavy rain swept into a region still reeling from a storm that triggered rescues and road closures a day earlier. An atmospheric river was swelling rivers toward record levels, with major flooding expected in some areas including the Skagit River valley north of Seattle. In Mount Vernon, officials ordered residents within the Skagit floodplain to evacuate.
Dozens of vehicles backed up at a sandbag-filling station in town as people prepared for what Mayor Peter Donovan described as “what increasingly appears to be a worst-case scenario here.” Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency, warning “lives will be at stake in the coming days,” and estimating as many as 100,000 residents may soon face evacuation orders. He said the National Weather Service predicted 18 major floods and 15 moderate floods in the state.
The National Weather Service warned of the possibility of “catastrophic flooding,” specifically along the Skagit and Snohomish rivers, and said landslides were likely in steep terrain. The Washington National Guard said it would send hundreds of members to help communities.
In the Mount Rainier foothills, Pierce County deputies rescued people at an RV park in Orting, including one man wading through waist-deep water. Part of the town was ordered to evacuate over concerns about the Puyallup River’s extremely high levels and upstream levees.
A landslide blocked part of Interstate 90 east of Seattle, trapping vehicles under tree trunks, branches, mud and standing water. A mountainous section of U.S. 2 was also closed due to rocks, trees and mud with no detour available. The Skagit River was forecast to crest at roughly 47 feet in the mountain town of Concrete early Thursday and about 41 feet in Mount Vernon early Friday — both record-setting forecasts by several feet, officials said.
Mount Vernon, the county’s largest city with roughly 35,000 residents, has long battled Skagit flooding. A downtown floodwall completed in 2018 helped during a near-record crest in 2021, but officials warned historic levels expected this week could top the wall and strain older levees. “The concern about that kind of pressure on the levy and dike system is real,” said Ellen Gamson, executive director of the Mount Vernon Downtown Association.
Business owners and residents scrambled to protect property. Some rented tables to raise inventory, stacked sandbags by doors and cleared items off floors. Jake Lambly said he added sandbags, tested pumps and moved valuables to his home’s top floor, calling his house “my only asset.”
Harrison Rademacher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, described the atmospheric river as “a jet stream of moisture” stretching across the Pacific with the nozzle pushing along the Oregon and Washington coasts. Authorities knocked on doors to warn residents in threatened neighborhoods and evacuated a mobile home park along the Snohomish River. The city of Snohomish issued an emergency proclamation, and Auburn workers installed temporary flood control barriers along the White River.
In Sumas on the U.S.-Canada border, a flood siren at city hall warned residents to leave and the border crossing was closed to southbound commercial vehicles to allow space for evacuations. Climate scientists note that while a single storm can’t be directly attributed to climate change without specific studies, warming is linked to more intense and frequent extreme rainfall, storms, floods and wildfires.
Another storm system was expected to bring more rain beginning Sunday, and the weather pattern looked “pretty unsettled going up to the holidays,” Rademacher said.
