TUKWILA, Wash. — A man was discovered dead in a submerged vehicle near Seattle early on Tuesday, marking the first fatality reported in the area following a week of relentless rain and flooding, as confirmed by authorities.
Rescue teams located the man and his car, which was submerged under approximately 6 feet (1.8 meters) of water in a ditch northeast of Seattle, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
The deceased, believed to be 33 years old, was pronounced dead at the scene after attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. There was no one else with him in the vehicle, and authorities are still investigating the circumstances of the crash.
During a briefing regarding the flooding and its aftermath, Chief Jamal Beckham from the Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue Battalion noted that many of the calls they received were from individuals attempting to drive through rising water or stranded on their vehicles.
“Many seemed unaware of how quickly the water levels were increasing,” Beckham remarked. “We had to rescue people from the roofs of their cars. It was almost too late; the cars could have been completely submerged.”
Response teams also dealt with residents who were caught off guard by flooding in their homes, despite warnings to evacuate.
The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center indicated that they would be issuing various warnings, including those for wind and floods, across much of the Northwest due to an incoming series of storms bringing heavy precipitation and strong winds.
The first storm system is expected to arrive in the Pacific Northwest Tuesday night, with heavy rain projected from Northern California to Western Washington on Wednesday.
Heavy snowfall is forecasted for the northern Cascades, expected to extend into the southern Cascades by Wednesday morning.
Residents living close to a levee failure in King County were instructed to evacuate their homes just hours after an earlier evacuation warning was lifted. Another broken embankment in the area contributed to the chaos.
Authorities in Pacific, roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Seattle, urged residents in surrounding evacuation zones near the White River to “mobilize now!” The National Weather Service also issued a flash flood warning for impacts related to a levee failure, set to last until late Tuesday morning.
In response to the levee breach, the Pacific Police Department appealed on social media for tractors capable of loading sandbag machines with soil.
As soon as they secured a tractor, they called for community help to fill sandbags.
A 911 call reporting water entering a Pacific Coast apartment building around 1:20 a.m. Tuesday marked the first indication of the levee failing, according to spokeswoman Kelly Hawks from the Valley Regional Fire Department.
Emergency crews assisted in evacuating about 100 individuals early Tuesday, rescuing some from the windows of first-floor apartments.
“The water rose that quickly,” Hawks noted, mentioning that around 220 homes were later ordered to evacuate, with no injuries reported.
Public works teams worked throughout the day on Tuesday to manage flooding and repair levees in order to enable residents to return home.
The King County Sheriff’s Office used a helicopter to alert residents with a loudspeaker and knocked on doors to deliver evacuation orders, assisting around 1,200 people overnight.
The levee break persisted for several days, resulting in significant flooding across communities. Many were forced to evacuate, and numerous rescue operations were conducted across Western Washington.
A section of the DeSimone Levee along the Green River collapsed on Monday, triggering evacuation directives for parts of three suburbs as crews worked to reinforce the levee with sandbags.
Evacuation orders for around 1,100 homes and businesses east of the Green River were issued by King County, according to Brendan McCluskey, the county’s emergency management director.
On Monday evening, it was announced that the evacuation warning for the east section of the Green River had been lifted, allowing residents to safely return to their properties.
