'The river is rising'

By Kay F. Reinartz

In view of the catastrophic floods that have recently devastated the region it is worth reflecting on the history of floods in the immediate area. Historically the southern part of the county experienced the worst flooding because of Mount Rainier. Up to 1917 when the Hiram Chittenden Locks were put into service over 1,600 square miles of watershed fed the White, Green and Black rivers, that flowed together in what is today Tukwila, to form the Duwamish River. The Black River and Duwamish River systems drained both the Cedar River, (the source of water for the greater Seattle areas public water system) and Lake Washington.

While the annual rainfall in King County is only around 30 to 40 inches, the headwaters of the White river, on the slopes of Mount Rainier, receive around 100 inches of rain and snow. Most of this precipitation falls during the winter months. Ideally, the precipitation falls as snow throughout the winter and melting snowpack provides a good steady runoff during the dry summer months. But now infrequently, warm moist air, now popularly referred to as the early settlers called the "pineapple express" a Chinook, blew in off the Pacific during the winter months bringing rain instead of snow to the mountains and valleys alike.

Charlotte Dobbs Widrig, who grew up in the Allentown district of Tukwila, on the Duwamish River, recalls from her childhood in the 1910s.

"I remember the word 'Chinook' and the sinister way in which it was spoken (by the grown ups). It told of floods caused by unseasonable warm winds melting snow in the mountains beyond the capacity of our rivers to carry it to the sea. Floods were heralded by swollen waters with flotsam and drift [wood] from the mountain streams. Logs with great upturned roots left in the fields that the pioneers had cleared for farming, plunged downstream sweeping everything before them."

The floodwaters also caused disease as the rushing waters would fill the outhouses (privies) that were the standard "bathrooms" of the pre-plumbing era and the human waste would contaminate the water, as would animal waste from barns. Cholera and dysentery would quickly reach epidemic proportions soon after the floods hit.

These devastating floods in south King County were brought under control only in the middle of the 20th century with the construction of the Howard Hansen Dam on the upper Green river.

Kay F. Reinartz may be contacted via bnteditor@robinsonnews.com