Oregon Public Broadcasting

Flood warnings have been issued for 19 Western Washington rivers. Relentless rain is to blame for the rising waters.

In the town of Orting in Pierce County some 200 residents along the Carbon River were urged to evacuate.

A small dam gave way in Cosmopolis near Aberdeen, Washington. And the town of Snoqualmie has declared a state of emergency due to flood danger.

Rod Harper is a state emergency management spokesman.

Rod Harper: “We have basically have river flooding that’s coming from the Canadian border to South of Lewis County and that’s a couple of hundred miles in extent and it’s a situation where many of those rivers are going to be at or above flood stage, some predicted to have major flooding.”

The main entrance to Mount Rainier National Park was also closed due to flooding over the roadway.

Some parts of Western Washington have seen five to seven inches of rain in recent days.

That means the ground is super-saturated increasing the risk of landslides.