Sandbagging under way in Washington state

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. -- Volunteers stacked sandbags on levees Tuesday as the Skagit River rose toward an expected major flood crest following the second torrential rainstorm in the Pacific Northwest in less than a week.

Flood warnings were posted along 11 rivers in western Washington. Record amounts of rain fell Monday on the region, where the ground already was saturated by a storm last Thursday blamed for one death, flooding, road washouts and mudslides. Two deaths were blamed on the earlier storm in neighboring British Columbia.

Volunteers were assembled at daybreak Tuesday in Mount Vernon, 55 miles north of Seattle, to sandbag around the downtown courthouse and revetments that protect the town from the Skagit.

No major damage was reported as of daybreak. Dan Berentson of the Skagit County Public Works Department said the river was expected to rise higher than the 1990 flood that caused $160 million in damage.

The Skagit was expected to crest during the night at 38 feet at Mount Vernon, 10 feet above flood stage, the National Weather Service said. In 1990, it reached 37.4 feet.

Rainfall had eased considerably Tuesday, following Monday's deluge when Seattle-Tacoma International Airport recorded a record for the date of 5.02 inches of rain, well over the old mark of 3.41 inches set in 1959, the weather service said.

Records elsewhere included 7.2 inches at Shelton and 5.39 at Hoquiam.

Dozens of homes were evacuated Monday in northwestern Washington.

One man had to be rescued by boat from a house near Darrington after the stormy weather turned back a helicopter, officials said. A family had to be rescued by boat from a house near Granite Falls.

One lane of U.S. 2 was closed through the Cascades on Tuesday because a slide had piled rocks as big as cars onto the highway. Boulders struck one car on the highway Monday but no one was injured, the State Patrol said.