Whatcom discusses post-flood repairs, housing needs and new forecasting measures
Housing remains one of the most pressing concerns for Whatcom County residents affected by Nooksack River flooding in 2020 and 2021, according to a recent progress report on recovery efforts.
Other uncertainties include decisions about how and where to rebuild — and whether to rebuild at all in some places — were the focus of a presentation from the Whatcom County Department of Public Works and the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management to the County Council in a July 26 committee session.
Topics also included road repairs, how to manage the river, and how to better predict when to expect flooding.
State aid for temporary housing has ended and 48 families still need housing, said Kyle Christensen, who is the county’s recovery manager.
“We still have five families who must leave and have no place to go at the end of this month,” Christensen told the council.
“Some of those families just don’t have an option of where they can go. Housing remains an issue. It’s just so hard to find places for these families to go,” said Christensen, who was mayor of Sumas when days of heavy rain sent floodwaters up to four feet deep washing through the small border town in winter 2020 and twice again in fall 2021.
That grim housing news came even as meteorologists are predicting a third straight La Niña, which usually means a cold, wet winter for the Northwest — and more potential for the kind of non-stop torrential rain that pushed the Nooksack River over its banks in mid-November 2021 with a fury not seen in more than a generation.
Punishing storms
Floodwaters inundated the communities of Everson, Nooksack and Sumas during each of the three recent floods, but every city and town along the river saw at least some damage from a series of tropical rainstorms in mid-November 2021, from the mountain village of Glacier to Lummi Nation on the Nooksack River delta.
One person was killed, and current estimates put the financial toll from 2021 alone at more than $150 million, said John Gargett, deputy director of the Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management.
“It really did touch everybody across the county,” Gargett said.
About 500 people were displaced and some 1,998 homes suffered damages ranging from minor to a total loss, he told the County Council, calling it the “most impactful” natural disaster in the region’s modern history.
A federal disaster declaration was made for both individual losses and damage to public infrastructure, which underscores the gravity of the flood’s effects, he said.
“Individual assistance is extremely difficult to get. The federal government does not like to hand that out unless it’s a very dire situation,” Gargett said.
Helping people
Some 590 families are still requesting aid from the Whatcom Long Term Recovery Group, Christensen said.
That locally-based nonprofit raised nearly $2 million with the Whatcom Community Foundation through early this year, according to previous Herald reporting.
Aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency hit $4.7 million and the Small Business Administration made $11.3 million in loans.
In addition, the Whatcom Long Term Recovery Group — formerly Whatcom Strong — is continuing its mission of providing direct aid to flood victims.
“They’re the boots on the ground and helping people,” Christensen said.
“This organization is meant to be around for years and years to come” and help during future floods and disasters, he said.
Currently, the group is providing five full-time disaster case managers to supplement the three provided by Whatcom County.
Christensen said 55 homes are being assessed currently for construction needs and there’s a waiting list for others.
Solutions sought
Meanwhile, efforts continue on a cross-border solution to repeated flooding along the Nooksack River, which also affects British Columbia because floodwaters flow downhill toward Abbotsford, where several areas were inundated in November 2021.
County Executive Satpal Sidhu told the council in a separate July 26 meeting that he toured the flood-stricken area in mid-July along with several U.S. and Canadian officials as part of an international effort to lessen the impact of extreme flooding on the Nooksack.
Repairs and planning
Road repairs are continuing across the county, and several permanent gates have been installed to prevent motorists from driving around road-closure signs and becoming stranded in floodwaters, said Jim Karcher of the Public Works Department’s Engineering Division.
Planning continues for the winter ahead and for future natural disasters, including floods, Gargett said.
“We’re really revamping completely the way we’re going to be responding to flooding and disasters as a whole,” he told the council.
That includes new warnings and messaging, and staging search and rescue personnel closer to the scene of an expected flood.
Further, Whatcom County needs a dedicated swift-water rescue team, he said.
Buyouts and elevation
Paula Harris of the Public Works Department’s Flood Division said 23 properties have been bought under a program to remove buildings from the path of floodwaters, and another 17 are being raised above the height of floodwaters.
“The big thing that we did since the flood is that we really put a lot of effort into trying to develop this acquisition and elevation assistance program and we did this in conjunction with our small cities so that we could provide some guidance and leadership to them as well as pool our resources,” she said.
In all, the owners of 92 properties were interested in the buyout/elevation program, Christensen said.
Levees, forecasting
Emergency repairs were made on six levees at various points along the river and the county is working on permanent repairs to eight levees, some with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Harris told the council.
“We’re just trying to get things back to where we were before the flood,” she said.
A river planning study is underway, and two measuring gauges are being added to the river in Everson and at Hannegan Road, in addition to the eight already monitored for water speed and depth by NOAA’s Northwest River Forecast Center, Harris said.
“That would help not only with our model calibration, but also with knowing what’s going on during a flood. It just will be a more efficient use. Plus, we’ll have some cameras up as well,” Harris said.
Recently, the U.S. Geological Survey was testing ground-penetrating radar near Nugents Corner.
“The hope is that they could use this new technology to actually suss out what the bottom of the river is when the sediment is moving,” Harris said.
Harris warned that finding a solution to repeated flooding won’t be simple.
“I think everybody is aware that it’s not going to be one silver bullet, it’s probably going to be a lot of different little actions that we’re going to put together,” she said.
Dredging?
One reason that the river floods is sediment buildup that causes the river to roil and spill over its banks during “atmospheric river” storms, much like a shallow ocean reef creates a spectacular surf break.
It’s a situation unique to the Nooksack River, which gathers rocks and gravel from Mount Baker as it funnels immense amounts of rain and snowmelt down the steep slopes of the 10,780-foot volcano in a relatively short distance.
Many residents of flood-prone areas along the Nooksack River have been demanding that the county dredge the river or resume removing gravel from its banks.
Leea Heeringa offered an emotional appeal for dredging at the County Council meeting on July 26.
“I’m scared to death that everything I’ve worked for, that I’ve rebuilt, dug myself out, is going to happen again,” Heeringa said.
“Fall is coming. I’m really nervous about fall. We have to take action now,” she said.
But several county officials say it’s not that simple, including Roland Middleton, who is special programs manager in the Public Works Department.
Any dredging of the river banks or “bars” would require permits or permission from a host of local, state and federal agencies, along with Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Tribe.
Other steps to ease flooding are in progress, Middleton told The Bellingham Herald.
“The Flood Control Zone District is developing a small-scale side channel enhancement project upstream of the Everson bridge,” he said in an email.
“The Flood Control Zone District is working hard to construct the project in late summer/early fall. The project will remove some material from the entrance to an existing side channel in an effort to encourage more flow into and expansion of the side channel. The scope of the project is limited by some of the permitting requirements. The information from this project should help with permitting future in-channel works,” Middleton said.
Further, Whatcom County and the Flood Control Zone District are working on other projects, including possibly “setting back the Twin View levee, constructing new berms around the small cities, and raising roads in the overflow corridor to store more water,” he said.
