Whatcom residents urged to brace for new round of extra-high ‘king’ tides
Whatcom County officials are warning about a new round of extremely high tides for several days starting this weekend, but its effects aren’t likely to be as damaging as the “perfect storm” that caused coastal flooding in late December.
Coastal Whatcom County areas, including Bellingham, Gooseberry Point, Sandy Point, Birch Bay, Cherry Point, Blaine and Point Roberts all will see daily high tides over 10 feet from Saturday, Jan. 21, through next week.
Flooding along Washington’s “inner coast” is expected to be minor compared to a round of flooding that hit Sandy Point especially hard in late December, meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Seattle said in a briefing Wednesday, Jan. 18.
That’s because mostly fair weather is expected next week, in contrast to the Dec. 27 storm that combined low pressure, wind and high tides that inundated waterfront homes.
Even so, seaside residents should be ready in case foul weather develops, said John Gargett, deputy director of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management.
“Because the variable is overlaying weather systems which can only be confidently forecast 12 to 24 hours before the high tide, residents of Whatcom County should be preparing for potential coastal flooding during January 21-26, 2023,” Gargett said in a statement Thursday, Jan. 19.
Also called “king tides,” their extreme heights develop every December and January because the sun’s influence on tidal action, which is mostly caused by lunar cycles, is stronger in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter months, according to a briefing last week from the National Weather Service in Seattle.
Damage assessments were still being conducted on the nearly 80 homes, mostly in Birch Bay and Sandy Point, that suffered damage in December, Gargett said.
Damage to public infrastructure, including a Sandy Point fire station, was about $750,000, he said.
The minimum figure for requesting state assistance is $1..1 million.
Sandy Point Fire Chief Jim Petrie told The Bellingham Herald that the mostly volunteer fire department’s Station 56 was heavily damaged twice by storms in 2022 — in January and December.
“It’s pretty devastating to have that happen twice in one year. The (storm) in December was like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” Petrie said on Thursday.
