Summary

King County’s Flood Patrol provides real-time, on-the-ground monitoring of levees that make the regional emergency response more effective.

News

King County’s Flood Patrol has provided on-the-ground monitoring night and day throughout the historic flood, coordinating with partner agencies to reinforce levees before they break and mobilize rapid repairs if they breach.

Coordinating emergency responses with King County’sFlood Warning Center and Emergency Operations Center, the Flood Patrol has prevented levee failures and made it possible for crews to be in position to immediately repair those that breach.

Just after midnight on Dec. 16, two Flood Patrol members monitoring a barrier along the White River began helping a neighborhood in Pacific evacuate, an emergency response that a King County Sherrif’s Office deputy says likely saved lives.

“King County’s Flood Patrol is a textbook example of boots-on-the-ground professionals who save lives and protect homes,” said King County Executive Girmay Zahilay. “I am grateful for their dedicated service, swift action, and effective coordination with partner agencies that has resulted in a unified emergency response to historic flooding.”

Members of the Flood Patrol are Department of Natural Resources and Parks employees who volunteer their service during rainy seasons with a wide range of professional backgrounds, including engineers, capital project managers, and ecologists.  

They assess the integrity of levees, reporting real-time conditions to the Flood Warning Center that coordinates emergency responses with city, county, state, and federal agencies. They are specially trained to work on wild rivers, working in pairs to keep each other safe in hazardous conditions. 

“Our regional coordinated response to flooding unifies the efforts of a lot of city, county, state, and federal agencies – and many of those actions are based on the real-time intel collected by our talented Flood Patrol,” said John Taylor, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Parks. “Our emergency response would not be nearly as effective without our Flood Patrol.” 

A few days after the atmospheric river began causing water levels to rise, a King County Road Services crew was able to reinforce Segale levee along the Green River in Tukwila immediately after the Flood Patrol alerted them to the potential breach. The following week, crews were already standing by to quickly drop large sandbags into the Desimone levee along the Green River after it breached, protecting communities in Kent, Tukwila, and Renton.  

A few hours later, two Flood Patrol members – Craig Garric and Josh Kubo – who were monitoring a HESCO barrier along the White River began going door to door shortly after midnight to alert neighbors and help them evacuate. They coordinated with the Emergency Operations Center to activate a rapid response with the City of Pacific, King County Road Services, and other partner agencies.  

The department’s Water and Land Resources Division is working to provide reinforcements, training National Guard troops to help Flood Patrol members who have been working nearly nonstop since the rivers began reaching Phase 4 flooding earlier this month.  

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