With storm season well under way and with the National Weather Service forecasting heavy rainfall for later this weekend, King County’s Flood Warning Center is prepared to provide citizens and property owners with accurate and timely river flooding information.
When wet weather brings rivers up to certain levels, the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks opens the Flood Warning Center to provide round-the-clock coordination of weather and river flooding information.
The center is designed to give citizens at least two hours warning to prepare for possible flooding. And it works in tandem with the County’s Road Services Division, to give citizens up-to-date information about road closures.
A new tool available to all King County residents this flood season is King County Flood Alerts. This free, automated system allows subscribers to receive customized alerts of potential flooding for any or all of King County’s six major river systems.
With King County Flood Alerts, immediate notifications about pending high water will come to your e-mail, smart phone text or voicemail, providing subscribers with the maximum amount of warning about potential high water.
Find the King County Flood Alerts link at www.kingcounty.gov/flood. This website is a valuable preparedness resource, with all of the latest information about river levels and road conditions, plus weather reports and other critical links.
The Flood Warning Center provides a continuously updated phone message (206-296-8200 or 1-800-945-9263) that describes conditions on King County’s major rivers. During a flood residents can speak directly to Flood Warning Center personnel via the Flood Center Hotline, at 206-296-4535 or 1-800-768-7932.
Operations of the Flood Warning Center, including the King County Flood Alerts service, are funded by the King County Flood Control District.
The center sends out flood patrol teams to inspect levees and to check recent repairs to flood protection projects, reported trouble spots, or problems called in by citizens.
In the event of high water, the King County Roads Services Division deploys crews to post road closures as water covers roadways. Road crews are also used to construct emergency repairs to flood protection facilities when high water threatens their viability.
The center also coordinates with the City of Seattle and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operate dams on county rivers, and with the King County Regional Communications and Emergency Coordination Center during major flooding conditions. The Flood Warning Center is an important element of King County’s Floodplain Management Program and its Flood Hazard Management Plan.
