Rain, rapid snowmelt that threatened Whatcom is over. Here’s when the next storm arrives
Extreme high tides inundated several low-lying coastal areas of Whatcom County, but communities along the Nooksack River largely avoided flooding as rain eased and nearly a foot of snow fell in the Mount Baker wilderness on Wednesday, Dec. 28.
Colder temperatures in the mountains ended five days of rain from a series of tropical storms and rapid snowmelt that had engorged the Nooksack River, threatening downstream cities and farmland.
Wednesday was expected to be a mostly cloudy but dry day in the Whatcom County lowlands.
Rain was forecast for Thursday, Dec. 29, with accumulations of about a quarter-inch predicted for Bellingham.
A flood watch was canceled for the Nooksack River, said Deb Slater, spokeswoman for the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office.
But it was a different story in coastal communities north of Bellingham., where a seasonal high tide, called a “king” tide, washed over seaside roads.
Flooding was reported in Birch Bay, Sandy Point and at Gooseberry Point in Lummi Nation on Tuesday, and those areas were affected by another extreme high tide Wednesday, Slater told The Bellingham Herald.
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Coastal flooding
“Sandy Point’s quite bad,” Slater said Wednesday morning.
Roads were covered in seawater and about two dozen homes were surrounded by a foot or so of water, according to social media posts.
No injuries were reported, Slater said.
The American Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at Cordata Presbyterian Church in Bellingham.
A damage estimate was unavailable, and Slater encouraged affected residents to make claims.
High tide was 10 feet 5 inches at 10:04 a.m. Wednesday at Birch Bay State Park, according to the website Tides.net.
About 6 inches to 18 inches of water flooded Birch Bay Drive on Tuesday, Dec. 28, as the king tide coincided with deep low pressure that created a storm surge into the northern Puget Sound.
Puget Sound Energy shut off power to about 75 customers in Birch Bay at the request of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management, a PSE spokesman told The Bellingham Herald.
That outage was reduced to two PSE customers by early Wednesday, according to PSE’s online outage map.
PSE warned its customer about possible electrical hazards in flooded areas.
“Because of the high tides, strong winds and surge on top of the rainfall, some coastal flooding impacts remain. Water will recede slowly in the coastal areas due to high tide,” the Sheriff’s Office said on its Facebook page.
River flooding, landslides
In Ferndale, the Nooksack River crested early Wednesday at 17 feet, below the flood stage of 18 feet, according to data from the Northwest River Forecast Center.
With less rain in the forecast, the river and creeks were expected to remain swift and deep, but far below flood stage for at least the next week.
But the threat of landslides lingered across lowland Western Washington as soil remained saturated from recent rains and rapid snowmelt last week.
