Wicked winds bring floods and darkness

Wild winds and a storm tidal surge caused downed trees, flooding and power outages throughout the La Conner area Thursday and again on Sunday.

Thursday morning wind-driven waves came crashing over Chilberg Road near the old Hope Island Inn, and two houses on McGlinn Drive were attacked by the sea.

Nearby resident and Fire District 13 firefighter Wood Weiss said, “I’ve lived here since 1999, and I have never seen anything like that. It was the most intense presentation, and you feel helpless fighting against nature like that.”

Weiss was on scene responding to the flooding emergency of his neighbors. “There was four inches of water inside the house,” Weiss said. “And outside of the house, we had water filling our boots,” he said.

According to another neighbor, Claire Eberle, homes on McGlinn Drive are not required to have flood insurance. While Eberle’s home also overlooks Chilberg Road and Skagit Bay, the flooding missed her home.

La Conner Town Administrator John Doyle said a high tide, coupled with low pressure, created a 13-foot storm surge that caused coastal flooding.

In the town limits, the Sherman Street boat launch was flooded, which happens often during super tides. Also, the La Conner Fire Department had a flooded parking lot because the storm surge pushed back treated water out of a manhole cover in the driveway.

“There are three spots in La Conner that still flood,” Doyle said. “The boat ramp on Sherman Avenue, Caledonia Street, and the Nell Thorn parking lot due to backflow.”

While the flooding and crazy winds seem like an anomaly to many, “There has been a large rise in frequency and intensity of storms every year since 2006,” Doyle said.

Downed trees on the Swino-mish Reservation caused hundreds of homes to lose power on Thursday — some for as long as 20 hours — and again on Sunday.

According to Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman Akiko Oda, power was restored to all homes in Skagit County by Monday night.

On Sunday afternoon at about 4 p.m., a large fir tree crashed down on a cabin at Bay View State Park. Inside the cabin, a couple from California had just laid down to take a nap when the tree barged in through their roof.

The couple was not injured, and they and their Chihuahua were not injured and decided to stay another night at the park, although in a different cabin.