Flooding

As many of you know, Western Washington got hammered with TONS of rain after our wonderful snow. And Whatcom County didn't get spared by any means. Many streams flooded, as well as most of the storm drains. The parking lot in front of my work had well over 2 feet of water (the middle was over 3 1/2 feet deep). And most of the roads surrounding my work were closed due to water over the roadways.

Jeremie's business also got flooded. But he only had about 3 inches of water that ran through his building. Luckily there wasn't much on the floor so he didn't lose any products (his biggest loss was a full case of Costco toilet paper and about a dozen old repair manuals).

Lake Whatcom, when it over fills, gets its water level lowered by them opening up the flood gates to Whatcom Creek. Well, Whatcom Creek overflows onto Iowa Street, closing the intersection by the freeway off-ramp for over a week. And Iowa Street is the main street to get to Jeremie's business, so he didn't get many people driving his way for a week.

Our house is fine, although we had to keep an eye on the culvert/ditch next to our house because it was flowing fast and furious and FULL. I'm glad ours wasn't clogged up like a bunch of other ones were. Our pool refilled with water (we had drained it down halfway at the end of summer), so we've been slowly draining it again.

My parents' house was surrounded by water, but the driveway was still accessible. They couldn't run the washing machine or the downstairs toilet, though. But that's nothing new....usually in the winter they have that kind of problem being a few inches below sea level. But this year was worse because they actually have had to go to the laundromat to do laundry.

We were fortunate. Ferndale and Lynden got hit hard as the Nooksack over-flowed. And there were mudslides like I've never seen. There was even one in Concrete where the mud took a house with a lady inside still, smashing it in pieces! My brother and another Deputy were the first emergency personnel to arrive, so they went in to the collapsed house, in the mud and water and debris, and pulled her out. (The woman is okay, but she did have some minor injuries.)

I will post some photos when I get a chance. I took a bunch on my cell phone and need to transfer them to my computer.

I hope all of you who live here in Western Washington are okay from all of the flooding.