STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
People across Washington state are recovering from record river floods after days of heavy rain. A levee failed near Seattle on Monday. So what about the others in the state? Casey Martin from our member station KUOW in Seattle reports more inclement weather ahead.
CASEY MARTIN, BYLINE: Flooding rivers and streams have displaced hundreds of people in western Washington. Evacuation orders have been going out almost daily. But Eric Fenchel (ph) was surprised when someone from the county showed up suddenly at the casino he manages.
ERIC FENCHEL: Told us we should have everyone evacuated, that the levee broke upstream there.
MARTIN: Businesses hurried to get their doors closed when word spread that the levee had broken. Fenchel says he had to get close to a hundred guests and staff out of the casino.
FENCHEL: It was not easy. Some of our customers don't speak English. But once we got it translated, they all understood. Nobody wants to lose their car or life.
MARTIN: His casino, called the Riverside, sits right on the banks of the flooding river. A pool of water filled his parking lot and was pouring down into the basement.
FENCHEL: We can't really assess it yet. We won't really know much else until the water goes down.
MARTIN: After days of near nonstop rain, much of the ground is saturated. And there's nowhere for new water to go. This was the first levee to fail on this long, twisting river. It's been patched up with large nylon soaking sacks. Si Singhtong (ph) was riding his bike along the Green River when he got the alert that the levee had broken.
SI SINGHTONG: It looked like it was about to reach the main street. Some parts of the trail, they're signing a detour. You can't ride through.
MARTIN: He hurried up a riverbank and saw that it was stripped bare.
SINGHTONG: Some of the trees are missing from the water.
MARTIN: Officials say they're closely watching other levees, which they say aren't built to hold back so much water for so long. This area is south of Seattle. It's semi-industrial and home to a lot of people who work at the airport. North of the city, farmers are still putting their lives back together, surrounded by flooded fields. There was a slight break in the rain to start this week. But Reid Wolcott at the National Weather Service in Seattle says winter is still ahead.
REID WOLCOTT: This is one small, relatively small event in the greater disaster that is unfolding across the Pacific Northwest.
MARTIN: Recovery could take weeks as debris is cleared and roads are reopened. More rain in the forecast could likely slow that down.
For NPR News, I'm Casey Martin in Seattle.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.