New flood watch issued for Nooksack River as Sumas waters recede a second time
Floodwaters began receding along the Nooksack River for the second time in November, even as a new “atmospheric river” storm threatened Whatcom County and Western Washington this week.
A flood watch is in effect from Tuesday, Nov. 30, to Thursday, Dec. 2, amid forecasts for 1 to 2 inches of rain in the Whatcom County lowlands and 3 to 4 inches in the mountains.
“Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams and other low-lying and flood-prone locations,” the National Weather Service said. “Any flooding that does occur will likely be minor.”
Current data from the Northwest River Forecast Center shows the Nooksack River cresting around midday Wednesday, Dec. 1, just below moderate flood stage.
At Ferndale, the river crest was expected late Wednesday and early Thursday, just above moderate flood stage.
Those levels are below the river height on Nov. 13-15, when floodwaters devastated cities, towns, farms and businesses along the Nooksack River and its floodplain, dropping a month’s worth of rain in less than 72 hours and inundating communities from the South Fork Valley to the river delta at Lummi Nation.
This week’s river forecast levels are also below those seen after another 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.
An infrared satellite view over the last 16 hours of the atmospheric river taking aim at British Columbia & NW WA today. It extends more than 2,600 miles into the Pacific. Colder air diving southward from the Bering Sea will eventually arrive Thursday into the weekend. #wawx pic.twitter.com/3JmKLUNJm6
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) November 30, 2021
The forecast associated with the latest storm was good news to Mayor Kyle Christensen of Sumas, who has been using Facebook to keep residents of the small border town informed about the weather, flooding, and recovery efforts.
“The water level is continuing to drop as we expected,” Christensen said in a post made at 10 p.m. Monday. “The excess water should stop going around and over the Cherry Street bridge by tomorrow morning. At that time, we should start to see the rest of the water around town drop quicker than it has done today.”
Along with the forecast of rain for Tuesday, areas of Whatcom County can expect gusty south-southeast winds at 30-35 mph, with scattered power outages possible.
And landslides were a danger as the ground remains saturated from a month of rain that’s almost triple the normal amount for November.
Nooksack Valley schools were on a two-hour start delay Tuesday amid last weekend’s flooding.
One man was killed and some 500 people were displaced after the worst flooding two weeks ago.
Gov. Jay Inslee issued a disaster declaration for Whatcom and 13 other Washington counties as local officials tally damage in hopes of triggering federal aid.
Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu also issued a disaster declaration, suspending some bureaucratic practices to allow for quicker emergency response.
Damages from the Nov. 13-15 storm have been estimated at $50 million.
On Tuesday, members of the state Department of Social and Health Services arrived in Whatcom County to help with cash assistance.
National Guard troops arrived Saturday to help with sandbagging, moving supplies and disaster response ahead of last weekend’s storm.
In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working to repair four levee breaches on the Nooksack from two weeks ago.
—David Rasbach (drasbach@bhamherald.com) contributed to this story.
