Everson mayor declares ‘This flood event is over,’ as Nooksack crests below flood stage
Rain eased overnight in Whatcom County as a drenching atmospheric river shifted north into British Columbia, allowing the Nooksack River to crest below flood stage from Everson to the river mouth at Lummi Nation.
Residents and public officials had been watching the river in those and other flood-stricken communities as persistent rain from the last in a series of storms pushed the river toward critical levels for what would have been been the third time in two weeks.
“The river crested overnight well below flood stage,” Everson Mayor John Perry said at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1.
“This flood event is over,” Perry said on Facebook, where he has been keeping the town’s 2,700 residents informed since the river surged over its banks Nov. 14.
Downstream in Ferndale, Mayor Greg Hansen told The Bellingham Herald that the levee held and the river stayed within its banks.
“We’re more or less seeing the same” as in Everson, Hansen said.
“The crests were markedly lower than they were on the 16th” when floodwaters first reached Ferndale. “Now it’s time to give (the levee) a close inspection.”
A flood watch remained in effect for Ferndale until 7 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, as rainfall fell just short of a daily record in Bellingham on Tuesday, Nov. 30, where more than an inch was recorded by 6 p.m.
November’s monthly rainfall of 14.67 inches was the highest since records were kept in 1949, and nearly triple the normal 5.2 inches for the city’s wettest month.
More than a month’s worth of rain fell in less than 72 hours on Nov. 13-15, when floodwaters devastated cities, towns, farms and businesses along the Nooksack River and its floodplain, inundating communities from the South Fork Valley to the river delta at Lummi Nation.
An Everson man was killed, some 500 residents fled their homes and damage was estimated at $50 million.
Both Gov. Jay Inslee and Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu issued disaster declarations, allowing faster emergency response.
Rain was expected to continue Wednesday, but without the threat of flooding, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.
But the National Weather Service in Seattle said that the newest flooding threat has eased, and no major storms were in the immediate forecast.
“Good news on the flooding front this morning,” meteorologist Dana Felton said in the online forecast discussion.
“The atmospheric river lifted slightly north overnight with six-hour precipitation totals in the North Cascades just 0.25 to 0.50 inches. This reduction in the rainfall rates has allowed the upper reaches of the Nooksack and the Skagit to slow down and in some cases stop rising overnight,” Felton said.
But the threat of landslides will linger for several days because the ground remains saturated.
More than two dozen Whatcom County roads remained closed because of standing water or flood damage.
Several state highways were affected by November flooding, and delays were reported Wednesday because of pooled water on Badger Road near Lynden and on the Mount Baker Highway near Boulder Creek.
Highway 9 remains closed at Nugents Corner and at the U.S.-Canada border in Sumas.
Because of the most recent flooding, the state Department of Social and Health Services mobile office moved to Lynden. The DSHS mobile unit will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 1-2, at the Rotary Building, 1775 Front St., at the north corner of the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds.
Some 29 people who lost their homes because of flooding were staying at the Red Cross shelter in the fairground, according to the Red Cross website.
Damage estimates are still being collected so that local and state officials can seek federal aid, according to an official at the Whatcom County Emergency Operations Center.
“We are asking all community members who’ve been impacted by flooding to report their damage via an online form at whatcomcounty.us/damageform or by calling 360-788-5311.,” said spokeswoman Amy Cloud. “That will give us at the EOC the best information for us to provide FEMA.”
Perry told The Herald on Tuesday that he and other city officials were watching the river and the forecasts, and weren’t sure what to expect.
“Everybody out here is on edge with the rain,” Perry told The Bellingham Herald.
“We have had so much general flooding that doesn’t have anything to do with the river,” he said.
Creeks are overflowing, storm drains are full and normal street runoff has nowhere to go after two rounds of flooding and five “atmospheric river” storms since Nov. 11, he said.
“There’s a lot of anxiety that it’s causing,” Perry said.
Water levels in Sumas continued to drop through Tuesday evening in Sumas, Mayor Kyle Christensen said on the city’s Facebook page.
“The Cherry Street bridge is not being bypassed with flood water anymore. That means we are done receiving that excess water flow from the Nooksack River going over in Everson,” Christensen said.
But power was shut off briefly to several homes Tuesday afternoon near Hovel Road, where Boon Creek was backing up and part of Hovel Road was removed to ease pressure from a blocked culvert.
Current data from the Northwest River Forecast Center shows the Nooksack River cresting early Wednesday just below moderate flood stage.
At Ferndale, the river crest was expected around midday Wednesday, about 1 foot above moderate flood stage.
Those levels are below the river height on Nov. 13-15 and also below those seen after the second round of record rainfall on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 27-28, which caused the Nooksack River to push over its banks in Everson and the floodwaters to reach Sumas early Monday, Nov. 29.
—David Rasbach, drasbach@bhamherald.com, contributed to this story.
This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
