Skagit County flood victims partially blame Army Corps of Engineers

HAMILTON, Wash. — People in Skagit County who have lost much of what they own to flooding say they need help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but they aren’t getting it.

On Tuesday, the lengthy cleanup process began, but residents in hardest hit Hamilton and Lyman are concerned the natural disaster isn’t over.

Two homes in Lyman are red-tagged and uninhabitable, another is yellow-tagged and deemed unsafe for the owners to stay, and Deanna Estes’ house is teetering on the edge of a yellow tag.

“We’ve called any government official we can find a phone number for,” she said while standing on the edge of her property.

She, like the others in Lyman, aren’t in a flood plain but could still end up in the river.

Their properties are eroding. Neighbors have lost a shop, a propane tank, a septic system and a jet ski, and Deanna blames an Army Corps of Engineers levee project started in response to a 2006 flood event.

“The plan was to continue the levee across to the island, which would have kept the main current from coming through the slough here,” she said, pointing across the river.

We learned the city would have had to take over after applying for hard-to-get grants and navigating a nearly impossible permitting system.

Skagit County is working to help—not with that project but with cleanup.

“(On Tuesday night,) the county emergency management director is going up to the town of Lyman to meet with the town council to determine what assistance the county can provide,” county spokesperson Bronlea Mischler said.

In Lyman alone, damage is estimated at $1 million.  The flood affected several houses and trailers, took down trees along the river bank and stranded horses.

Deanna says she feels stranded too — help hasn’t arrived, and her house could be next.

“If the work doesn’t happen before the next event, yes,” she said.

The county department of emergency management says there’s no guarantee a levee could have prevented the flood.

Cox Media Group