Homes, roads remain flooded after relentless rainfall drenches Western Washington

Heavy rainfall caused rivers to crest and flood neighborhoods, and many roads remain closed Wednesday.

Luckily, most rivers are receding and are now at moderate risk for flooding, including the Stillaguamish at Arlington and the Snoqualmie River.

There is still a chance that the Skagit River could rise and cause flooding around places like Mt. Vernon and Sedro-Wooley.

In Arlington, the water gets deeper as you drive down Pioneer Highway East. We tried to get to Silvana, which is less than two miles down the road, but that area is dealing with major road closures.

That town has both the slough and the Stillaguamish River to deal with, with the latter seeing the highest water levels ever recorded in history.

On Wednesday, things appeared to be approving in Arlington, but just a few miles southeast in Granite Falls, a video posted by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife showed the raging south fork of the Stillaguamish River running high and fast.

Some homes flooded and the speed of how quickly the river came up into yards and homes caught a lot people by surprise.

Also Tuesday, there was a water rescue near the Snohomish River boat launch.

We spoke with two men who said road closed signs were not up, so they followed other cars into the flooded water.

The good news is both of the two men are OK.

Authorities continue to urge people to listen to warnings and not drive through water on roads.

Also in Snohomish County, Washington State Department of Transportation crews posted a crane on eastbound US 2 at Ebey Slough near Everett to pick up big logs floating by.

WSDOT says if logjams are not managed, pressure can build against piers and damage them. The debris can also cause water to flow differently, potentially causing erosion.

In King County, flooded roads were also a problem in many urban areas, including Bellevue, and many roads are still closed.

Drivers often added to the trouble by driving around clearly marked “road closed” signs, but that wasn’t the case earlier on Bellevue’s Southeast 7th Place.

One woman’s car stalled out in high water there before the warning signs went up, but she was in good spirits after getting a little help from loved ones.

“The three of them pushed me out. If you say you get fed up with your family, no – they’re the ones who come to rescue you, nobody else,” said Jupinder Gill.

She said the price tag to fix her car might be a couple thousand dollars.

What’s next - From KIRO 7 Chief Meteorologist Morgan Palmer

We’ll continue to see rain through Wednesday morning, with the prospect for a few showers remaining and some sunshine.

A weak weather system moves through Thursday with some rain and mountain pass snow, likely to be of the “nuisance” variety, though any additional rainfall will keep shallow landslide risk elevated.

Friday looks drier before more rain and mountain snow on Saturday with a more significant weather system. Fortunately for water-logged areas, it starts moving out Sunday with just a few lingering rain showers into Sunday afternoon and possibly Monday.

Next week looks drier overall but given the weather patterns in place over a large scale of the hemisphere, I hesitate to promise a dry forecast. Still, it does not look anything like the active weather of this week.

In the mountains, 6 to 12 inches of snow at the passes is expected starting Thursday through the weekend with a little more on the higher elevations. The Northwest Avalanche Center estimates that 25 to 30 percent of the young snowpack in the Cascades and Olympics was lost due to this warm atmospheric river event.

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