Mount Vernon flood wall held as officials warn of more rain; FEMA teams staged

Mayor Peter Donovan said the city’s recently completed 1.4-mile flood wall was deployed in about 12 hours by city workers and ‘‘protects 225 buildings’’ in downtown Mount Vernon, lifting them out of the FEMA 100-year flood plain and cutting insurance costs by roughly 40 percent.

The wall’s effectiveness was a central focus at a press briefing where state, federal and local officials described response efforts and warned the event was not over. ‘‘The bottom line is we’re not done,’’ said Reed Wolcott, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, who forecast an additional 4 to 7 inches of mountain rainfall in the Skagit watershed and said there is a 75 percent chance of at least 45 mph gusts and about a 50 percent chance of gusts over 50 mph.

The Governor said she had spoken with Secretary Noem and that federal teams were ‘‘staged’’ and working with local partners on immediate priorities including rescue operations and debris clearing. The Governor also said the state EOC’s count — current as of last night — showed about 250 emergency rescues statewide and confirmed there were no reported deaths to that point. Julie, an emergency operations representative, said the city’s incident log showed ‘‘over 20’’ rescues locally and that more reports from individual jurisdictions were still being compiled.

Officials described distinct timeframes for relief. Federal support and FEMA’s emergency declaration, the Governor said, address short-term lifesaving needs and logistics such as shelters and road clearance. A separate, lengthier damage-assessment process will inform formal requests for recovery funding; federal approval and disbursement of longer-term financial aid can take months, officials warned.

Sen. Murray, who the mayor credited with championing initial studies and funding for the project, said the wall had made a ‘‘difference for this community in lives and dollars and businesses’’ and called the investment a demonstrable example of preventive infrastructure.

City incident command staff present at the briefing — including Fire Chief Brian Harris and Public Works Director Chris Phillips — were listed as points of contact for technical questions about the wall and local flood response. Officials reiterated public-safety guidance: do not drive through floodwater and obey closures.

Looking ahead, the Governor asked staff to convene a lessons-learned session on February 1 to review response, recovery and preparedness measures once immediate operations permit. Officials said work will continue on rescues, sheltering and infrastructure inspections as river and weather conditions evolve.