It’s 4:30 p.m., you’re still at work when you get a flood alert saying the Snoqualmie River has reached phase 2 – minor flooding is expected in low lying areas. Because you know that driving through floodwaters is dangerous, you need to check to see what the conditions are, plan what route you’ll take home, and figure out how the rest of your night might be impacted.
The King County Flood Warning Center is here to make sure that information is available.
In the following interview we go behind the scenes to see what staff are doing to ensure you get the answers you need.
Flood Warning Center staff monitor river levels, weather data, dam operations, and road closures and are active when any river may have minor flooding. They distribute flood warning information so residents, business, property owners, and emergency response officials can make critical health, safety, and economic decisions before, during, and after flood events. They can be reached at 206-296-8200 or 1-800-945-9263 and have interpretation services available.
The King County Flood Warning Center is funded by the King County Flood Control District.
We interviewed Darian Kis-Young, a civil and environmental engineer, and Mary Strazer, a civil engineer and capital project manager, in King County’s Water and Land Resources Division – home to the Flood Warning Center.
What is your role during a flood?
Mary: I have been a responder with the Flood Warning Center since 2019. We monitor weather data, river levels, and road closures, while providing 24/7 call center support when flooding is expected, until conditions have subsided. We also go to flooding areas to check on important infrastructures, such as levees and other river structures.
I also liaison with the Army Corps of Engineers and its operations of the Mud Mountain Dam on the White River and the Howard A. Hanson Dam on the Green River. This liaison role is mostly important leading up to a flood. As a liaison, if we get a forecast that looks like it’s going to result in some flooding on the Green River or the White River then I would start coordinating with the Corps of Engineers and share important dam operation information to the Flood Warning Center team in advance of a storm.
Darian: I started in 2018. Now, I have been a captain for two flood seasons. As a captain, I coordinate with team members to check availability and whenever my team needs to be on duty I’m always there.
For bigger flood events, I coordinate my team to find the extra help and administer the opening and closing of the Flood Warning Center which includes sending out flood alerts as needed.
What is a highlight of working in the Flood Warning Center?
Mary: In my work with capital projects, we are always thinking about either recovering from a large flood or preparing for the next large flood, it’s either looking back in time or looking forward. With the Flood Warning Center, I am in real time watching things unfold and monitoring all the rivers and their flood levels, as well as coordinating with patrol staff and other agencies to learn about where the most acute problems might lie.
Darian: You see everything unfold and are actively aware of all the river and flood related information throughout the county. I also value calls that come in from the community since I do not work with King County residents in my day-to-day job.
State Route 202 near Fall City in 2006.
What do you think is most important for the public to know about flooding?
Mary: Flooding is a natural process. The creek that someone may live next to is beautiful and tranquil for most of the year only to suddenly become a raging river that could flood property and endanger families.
Being aware of the potential flooding dangers that are near you, whether it’s a creek or river valley through which you commute, is critical.
Learn your flood risk. Check your flood risk for where you live, work, go to school, or commute by entering any address at kingcounty.gov/FloodMap. Plan accordingly by understanding which areas have the highest risk of flooding.
If there are potential flooding dangers in your area, getting permits and buying flood insurance is important to protect your home and get it ready for flood season. If you live in a floodplain, you may install check valves or anchor things in place on a property. Know your evacuation route. When I am in the field, I am always aware of when I’m on a single access road and think of what I would do if a flood occurred.
Darian: Creeks can have flash flooding when there is harsh rain. It is important to understand how the river, creek, or other body of water you live by may respond during floods. Know how typical flood elevations are relative to your own property. If you have any decks, furniture, items you do not want to get lost in a flood, make sure that those are out of the floodway.
Also, know the resources that are available to you from the Flood Warning Center and King County.
What does fostering healthy rivers and resilient floodplain communities mean to you?
Darian: As an engineer in the Habitat Restoration Unit, I am largely tasked to restore and connect waterways that make up a floodplain, or “re-engage the floodplain”, while reducing risk to communities that live there. In my unit, we have some properties that we have acquired from voluntary sales over the years. We re-engage the floodplain by opening more wetland and riparian habitat. We create more side channels that slow water during the bigger floods. More wetlands and side channels are beneficial for animals and fish too. We do this without creating flood rises or negative erosion impacts on neighboring parcels or other areas of the river.
The County, as service provider to the King County Flood Control District, provides a home buyout program, when feasible, to make sure people are getting properly compensated when they’re moving out of harm’s way. We do this to help return the floodplains into a healthy system, removing all the rock and hard infrastructure that negatively impacts fish, wildlife, and habitat.
Mary: At King County, we are working to balance both environmental stewardship with community needs to reduce flood risk and look at the problem of flooding at each phase: preparing for a flood, addressing an active flood, and after a flood. After a flood, we do repairs and plan for longer term response.
Another tactic that we often use in our capital project designs is to set back levees to increase both flood capacity and protect communities on the landward side of the levees. Our designs incorporate natural processes like sediment transport, channel migration, and wood in the river, while also improving the environment for our wildlife neighbors along the way.