A tale of two cities: Mount Vernon, Sumas face very different recovery efforts after historic flooding
MOUNT VERNON — Residents strolled along the riverwalk in downtown on the morning of Dec. 13, coffee in one hand, dog leashes in the other. The bright blue sky contrasted the rolling brown waters of the Skagit River.
The scene was unimaginable less than 72 hours ago when local and state officials were preparing for the Skagit River to crest the river wall and pour onto the bricks and into businesses.
The wall held. The waters, while record-setting, didn’t flow over.
But Mount Vernon was lucky. Elsewhere in Skagit and Whatcom counties, residents returned to waterlogged homes Saturday with breath bated as another atmospheric river prepared to make its way into the region Sunday, Dec. 14. Officials reported no fatalities across western Washington after the first round of flooding. At least 20 people in Skagit County were rescued.
Local officials in Skagit praised coordination with their state partners. Officials in Sumas, Everson and Nooksack questioned how record flooding had once again put their cities underwater.
Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and Mount Vernon Mayor Peter Donovan observe the city’s floodgate system. (Photo by Eli Voorhies)
‘A contrast’
At Edgewater Park in Mount Vernon, 82-year-old Robert Tully stood at the foot of a man-made, dirt-and-sandbagged berm. The berm was meant to keep floodwaters from flowing into the neighborhood. But even though the Skagit River crested at a record-breaking 37.73 feet, the water never flowed high enough to breach the berm.
Tully watched a friend and her family check on the feral cats who live in the park as part of a trap, neuter and release program.
Robert Tully, 82, comes to feed stray cats at Edgewater every morning, but waited behind the sandbag barrier while his neighbor took care of feeding them on Dec. 13. He said this flooding was worse than in 2021 and 2023. (Photo by Eli Voorhies)
“We feed them every morning at 9:30,” he said, noting the cats missed two days of meals. During the high rivers and floods of the past 10 years, the cats survive.
They either hide on the platforms near the park or “go in the trees,” Tully said. “I don’t know if they go down to the woods or what. One year [the park] was all flooded, even that field, but they were still here.”
An hour later, Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, along with Gov. Bob Ferguson, walked along the river wall downtown. Murray, as one of the top-ranked Democrats in Congress, was instrumental in securing the funding for the wall.
She described it as “preventative infrastructure,” and said 20 years ago, during the last big flood, the Skagit River was up to her knees. Now she was dry.
“I saw business owners with tears in their eyes because they lost so much of their merchandise,” Murray said. “… This investment in this wall really made a difference for this community in lives and dollars.”
Mount Vernon Mayor Peter Donovan said Saturday the weather in the morning was a contrast to the week his team has had. He praised the wall and how it saved 225 downtown buildings and 40% of business owners’ insurance costs.
But the river wall is likely to be tested again in the coming days, Donovan said. Another atmospheric river is heading toward the region, dumping an estimated 5 inches of rain on an already soggy area.
“We are not done,” he said. “We’re not out of the woods with this particular event.”
‘It’s not sustainable’
The blue sky extended further north as residents of Sumas went home Saturday, beginning the long process of cleaning up and grappling with flashbacks to the last big flood in 2021.
At the Sumas Advent Christian Church, the Whatcom Long Term Recovery Group (also known as Whatcom Strong) was busy directing hundreds of volunteers and flood survivors in the afternoon.
It was a well-oiled machine: people would come through the doors and were given directions, stay at the folded table as a volunteer to sign a release form, or move to a row of tables by the windows to be met with a case worker to start the flood recovery process. Volunteers were given directions on which houses or businesses to go to and then pointed toward gloves, boots and hazmat suits.
English and Spanish flowed freely. Anyone without a plate of food in hand or not being seen by a caseworker was asked to help.
Ashley Butenschoen, the vice president of Whatcom Strong, said many of the volunteers were mucking out houses and cleaning out crawl spaces so that mold didn’t set in.
Leisha Andersen has been working as a volunteer since Dec. 12 and coordinated donations out of Sumas Advent Christian Church. (Photo by Eli Voorhies)
An estimated 400 to 500 residents across Sumas and Everson had reached out to the group for help over the past two days, Butenschoen said.
“Every county should have a long-term recovery group because when you don’t, you don’t know what to do,” she said.
Volunteers came from nearby and as far south as Seattle.
By the time Jascha Herlihy and Alice Komrowski were eating a late lunch, they and another friend were getting ready to visit a fourth home to help clean up. The last house they cleaned had elderly residents who couldn’t do much. It was the second time their house flooded.
“Their entire house is gutted and it was really intense,” Herlihy said. “We were both almost on the verge of tears talking about it because [the woman] was in such good spirits.”
Leisha Andersen was at the church starting at 7:30 a.m. and manned the supplies station, directing volunteers to put gloves, diapers and toilet paper in plastic boxes for residents to pick up. On occasion, she would disappear into a trailer and come out with a dehumidifier or heater for a flood survivor.
“I have a big heart,” she said. “For me, it’s seeing the devastation that people are going through not for the first time, but for a second time.”
Thirteen miles to the east, the sentiment of Sumas, Everson and Nooksack having endured a second 100-year flood event in four years was frustrating to Everson Mayor John Perry.
Debris from a lumber mill upstream gathers on the Johnson Creek Walking Bridge going into downtown Sumas. (Santiago Ochoa/Cascadia Daily News)
“How do we provide better protection to these three communities?” He said, addressing a group of elected officials that included Whatcom County Sheriff Donnell Tanksley, various small city mayors, Lummi Nation Chairman Anthony Hillaire, Washington Second District Rep. Rick Larsen and Sen. Cantwell.
He explained that the changes on the Nooksack River continue to increase the city’s flood risk. Studies and conversations have been had about the flood risk, but little has been done.
“It’s not sustainable,” Perry said, noting that in the next 35 years, the Nooksack River’s flood risk will double in frequency. “I can’t in good conscience tell our community that we’re doing them a good service if we allow this to happen.”
Sumas Mayor Bruce Bosch hailed the communication efforts that saved multiple people from being rescued and was touched by the volunteer efforts he saw Saturday.
“But if you talk to homeowners there, there’s a sense of hopelessness,” he said. “How often do we have to do this?”
Cantwell was adamant in her remarks that something had to be done in Sumas. She wanted to return to the area and set a meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers within a week.
Between her travels in Mount Vernon and Sumas on Saturday, Cantwell said the two counties were “night and day.”
“One was a story of a lot of resources over a long period of time to get prepared,” she said. “Here, it’s a part of the county that is less developed in Whatcom County. A lot less resources, but certainly have the impact and have seen historic flooding.”
As the senator and her team, along with the representative, left for the evening to return to Skagit County and further south, the Sumas, Everson and Nooksack mayors went back to likely what will turn into months of recovery efforts with a small army of volunteers.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at [email protected]; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
