Flooding remains threat in Pacific north-west as Washington declares emergency
Dangerous flood waters from historically swollen rivers in the Pacific north-west were continuing to cause a huge threat on Friday as 100,000 people in the area were under evacuation warnings and more deluges are due on Sunday.
Torrential rain triggered flooding on Thursday across much of the region from Oregon north through Washington state and into British Columbia, closing dozens of roads and already prompting the evacuations of tens of thousands of people.
The intense rain began earlier in the week, swept into the region by a storm system meteorologists call an atmospheric river, a vast airborne current of dense moisture funneled inland from the Pacific Ocean.
The governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson, declared a statewide emergency on Wednesday in response to the heavy weather that has caused mudslides and washed out roads and submerged vehicles.
Western Washington state bore the brunt of the storm, with flood watches posted across the Cascade and Olympic mountains and Puget Sound, as well as for a northern slice of Oregon, a region home to some 5.8 million people, according to the US National Weather Service.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/12/flood-water-rain-pacific-northwest-washington
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