Flood-stricken towns in Washington state brace for potential levee failures

The Star

Residents and emergency crews in towns along the rain-engorged Skagit River in western Washington state braced on Friday (Dec 12) for potential levee failures while National Guard troops assisted in evacuations after days of severe flooding in the Pacific Northwest.  The entire town of Burlington was under evacuation after the river crested at an all-time high of nearly 38 feet (11.6 metres), well above major flood stage.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00Residents and emergency crews along Washington's Skagit River braced for possible levee failures

00:07on Friday as National Guard troops helped evacuate towns after days of severe flooding.

00:13The entire town of Burlington, home to about 9,200 people, was evacuated after the river

00:20hit a record 11.6 meters at nearby Mount Vernon.

00:24The situation is extremely unpredictable.

00:27We saw that in Burlington last night, where there was a situation where literally in the

00:31middle of the night, about 1,000 folks had to flee their homes in a really dire situation.

00:36It is very unpredictable.

00:37We encourage, of course, individuals to follow the orders from their local officials when

00:43it comes to evacuation orders.

00:45It's deeply important, not just for those individuals and their safety, but for the safety

00:50of first responders who are coming to rescue individuals who do not follow those evacuation

00:54orders.

00:55The Skagit River floodplain, home to about 78,000 people north of Seattle, was under

01:00a Level 3 evacuation, with statewide notices affecting 100,000.

01:06National Guard and sheriff's deputies assisted residents, some using rafts to rescue those

01:11stranded.

01:12Rains eased, but a flash flood warning remained downstream due to potential levee failures.

01:25Inflammant, the

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