Storms cause some minor local flooding

The Snohomish County area received heavy wind and rain beginning on Jan. 31 and continuing through the week which caused minor flooding incidents.

“The biggest event for us occurred during the Eagle Festival,” said James Kelly, Public Works director for the city of Arlington.

The Stillaguamish River got up to 19.4 feet that day, and later reached as high as 8.86 feet on Feb. 6.

Kelly said there was not a lot of flooding at the river, although other areas of the city did receive some water.

“At Stormwater Wetlands Park it was overflowing with water, as it’s designed to do,” he said, and there was some minor flooding at Island Crossing.

Marysville, likewise, did not receive major flooding anywhere.

“We did pretty well with the storm,” said Jesse Perrault, streets supervisor with the city of Marysville.

Marysville's 136th Street saw some standing water, as did a couple of other roads in the city, but the city didn’t feel the need to close down any roads.

“Right now we’re recovering nicely from the storm,” said Perrault. “All of our roads are open now [Feb. 7].”

There were still some road closures just outside of the Marysville city limits though, such as east of 67th Avenue and a section of 100th Street, said Perrault.

Marysville crews typically work with sand bags to reduce the effects of flooding, said Perrault.

“We also have two locations where we provide sand and make it available to the public,” he said.

Those locations are usually at 100th Street and 67th Avenue and at the entrance of the Public Works building at 80 Columbia Ave.

“We also go around to the storm drains and make sure there is no debris clogging them up,” said Perrault. “That’s primarily a fall thing, but we still do it in winter.”

City crews were prepared to respond during this rain event.

“As soon as we saw the rain was coming steadily on Tuesday we put out a request for overtime,” said Perrault. “We’re definitely over the hump now.”

Arlington’s crews were also ready.

“The city typically prepares for storms like this. We prepared our road closure signs where we typically know there is flooding and got sand bags ready,” said Kelly.

Flooding ended up not being serious in Arlington, said Kelly, but high winds did knock a high number of trees that were a problem.

“Those sand bags were not as necessary this time, but it was good that are crews were ready because they were able to respond to fallen trees,” said Kelly.

For heavy rain storms, Perrault recommends neighborhoods make sure their storm drains are clear.

“If people see debris pooling around their storm drains they can help clean them up,” he said. “We get to them eventually but in times like these we are spread thin.”

Perrault also said to follow the state’s safety motto “Turn Around, Don’t Drown” when there is road on the water.

“Don’t drive through standing or flowing water,” he said, “it doesn’t take much water to stall a vehicle.”