Floods past and future

Dear Folks of La Conner,

So, the rains came … and then they came some more, it even came through the door! Floodwaters submerged the not-too-distant town of Sumas, and it could have easily happened here, and it might yet! Just because the Mount Vernon floodwall worked to protect a one-mile section of town, doesn’t mean the levee is secure. This warmish wet weather has delivered more rain in November, than any November ever.

The river has been at or above flood stage for at least half the days of the month. Water has been slowly seeping under the levee, filling low lying areas, slowly saturating these earthen levees, softening them a bit more every day. If the river rose to 36.76 feet again, the levees would probably not hold.

Warmer and wetter weather was forecast just a few months ago, and here it is, hassling our heads once again. We have had several “hundred year” events in the past few decades, one in 1975, two in 1990, and again this year. Yep, these “hundred year” events are happening nearly every decade!

Some of us keep track of such things, our lives depend on it. How to keep floods from causing us great grief has been on some of our minds for a long time. Yeah, some of us figure out ways to pile up more dirt and rock, with little niblets of money thrown our way, while others of us creatively figure out ways to get dikes to pay for their own construction.

Some of us jump to the center of the balance point, we’ve been centrists since we were young, a long time ago. Some people have said that there’s no way that my strategies will prevail, but they don’t know how comprehensive my plan really is, how sensible, how difficult it is to say no to it.

I think it is kind of sad that I’ve had such a difficult time getting heard. Heck, I’m neither dangerous nor scary, why do I get treated like a pariah? I could have an inferiority complex if I didn’t know better. I occasionally think maybe the reverse is true. I know that if I were a community leader, I’d really want to hear what a person like me had to say.

Sincerely,

Glen S. Johnson

Skagit Valley