‘We definitely want to be more pro-active’ as flood season nears. Here’s how that will work
Whatcom County will begin mobilizing earlier and providing more communication to the public when flooding is possible, emergency management officials said at a discussion of recent weather disasters.
They’re setting a 72-hour action plan and promoting the WhatcomReady.org website with links to information about road closings, river gauge height, available shelter, and other disaster resources when severe weather is imminent.
“I don’t want people to think we’re perfect. Hopefully, we won’t have a flood season,” said John Gargett, deputy director of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management.
Garrett was speaking Thursday, Oct. 6, in Everson, at a meeting of public safety officials and elected leaders who are planning for the 2022-2023 flood season amid a third straight La Niña — a seasonal weather phenomenon that usually means a cold, wet winter in the Northwest.
Both 2020 and 2021 were La Niña years, and both times the Nooksack River flooded towns and farmland from Glacier in the mountains to Marietta at the river delta in Lummi Nation.
November 2021 saw a series of atmospheric rivers that dumped nearly three times the normal November rainfall on Whatcom County, causing upwards of $200 million in damage and killing one person.
Hundreds of people are struggling to rebuild or relocate, and 40 to 60 people remain without permanent shelter, Gargett said.
“We got hammered,” Gargett said. “We were completely surprised and overrun by the size of this particular storm.”
Kyle Christensen, the county’s recovery manager, said the goal is to alert everyone that flooding is possible three days ahead of when a storm is predicted.
That’s when National Weather Service forecasts become more accurate.
“I want to be more prepared this year. We definitely want to be more pro-active,” said Christensen, who was mayor of Sumas in 2020 and 2021 when the border enclave was inundated.
