Hi Tweeters & Friends:
I was down at Kent doing family errands yesterday, Fri Nov 10. Wow, the
fields are now flooded along Frager Rd near Willis St. The river remains
very high in the area. It rained pretty hard all day it seemed. The big
surprise to me was the Fishing Hole in the Kent Valley. It is at the
Kent-Des Moines hwy, at Meeker St. It is totally flooded with water
covering the whole park there, with water 2/3 of the way up the outside of
the sanican. The water in that area seems even deeper than during the
floods that we had last winter. The kids and I drove past there, and down
Frager Rd next to the Green River. The river remains only about 1 foot
below the level of the road. The fields out to the south of the ranch
houses there are full, with water up to the houses.

Tue, Nov 7 report:
I had been down in the valley scouting out the floods on Tues. At that time
the fields at S 204th were full looking south. I had many ducks on that
water as I looked from the corner, including Ring-n Duck, but no scaup.
Lots of Northern Pintail now, too. 204th St was still about 1 foot above
the road, but it may be covered by now as the fields have gotten more
waterlogged. There were just a few birds at Boeing Ponds, and I didn't stop
to walk around the ponds. I drove south, on W Valley through Kent. On this
day (Tue) I saw non-flooded fields from Frager Rd near Willis St. In that
area, there was a flock of more than 20 Amer. Pipits which landed in the
field. (Those fields are now flooded as of Fri.)
Continuing on Tue: Down at Smith Bros, I parked on W Valley hwy just north
of S 272nd, and
looked east over the flooded pumpkin/cabbage/corn fields. I was looking
toward I-167. Lots of crows and starlings were flying around, and a few
birds that were probably dowitchers flew. But they did not return. A male
NORTHERN HARRIER flew through, and a Red-tailed Hawk swooped by. About 8
WESTERN MEADOWLARKS joined with Brewer's and Red-w Blackbirds at the corn
stubble field where the corn maze had been. Pipits were there.
AT THAT TIME, on Tue, West
Valley Road was still passable.

Last night (Fri) I watched the news for info about the flooding Green River.
There was not a word. But this morning on the news they said that the
authorities are worried about the levies along the Green River near South
Center. A key levy has slipped another 1/8 inch (or something), indicating
the river has undercut the banks. This would endanger all the businesses
down there including those at South Center. And all those warehouses too.
The Seattle Times this this morning says that as of 5pm Fri, 9.55 inches of
rain had fallen at SeaTac airport since Nov 1. This is just west of the
Green River near South Center & Kent. The record for Nov rainfall was set
in 1998, when 11.62 was recorded at the airport. The wettest month ever was
Dec 1933, when 15.33 inches of rain fell in downtown Seattle.
The paper printed a flood update website for roads:
In King Cty: www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/roads/roadalert/
State Roads: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/trafficalerts/
Carol Schulz
Des Moines, WA
linusq at att.net