MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Governor Bob Ferguson announced Saturday that there were no reports of death or serious injury following the state’s historic flooding.
“I think our prayers have certainly been answered, remarkably so,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson credited that in part to the first responders who worked around the clock during the emergency, performing more than 250 rescues statewide.
“And obviously a little bit of luck,” he said during a news conference in Mount Vernon. “The floodwater right here on the Skagit could have easily been three, four, five even six feet higher than they were.”
Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray joined Ferguson on Saturday for a tour of the damage in Snohomish County.
They then headed to Mount Vernon, where they visited the $30 million flood wall credited with protecting the city’s downtown.
Among the leaders and experts the governor and senators met with was a meteorologist with the National Weather Service who warned that yet another atmospheric river headed to the region could pose another flooding risk in the next few days.
“We have additional rainfall, another atmospheric river on the way,” Reid Wolcott of the NWS said. “Bottom line: we are not done. We are not out of the woods with this particular event. We are halfway through.”
Ferguson said 75,000 to 100,000 people were evacuated because of the flooding.
Many are just now returning home for the first time and seeing the extent of the damage.
In hard-hit Burlington, KIRO 7 crews spotted multiple households pulling their possessions out of garages and basements to figure out what was salvageable.
“For those Washingtonians, we are united,” Ferguson said. “We are here for them. We will do everything in our power with all the partners we have to be there for them in the really challenging days that are ahead.”
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