Levee breach triggers flash flood warning and evacuations south of Seattle

TUKWILA, Wash. (AP) — Residents near a breached levee in Washington state were told to evacuate early Tuesday, just hours after an evacuation alert was lifted for residents near another broken levee in the same county.

Police in the city of Pacific, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Seattle, urged people in the evacuation area near the White River to “Go Now!” The National Weather Service office in Seattle issued a flash flood warning for the levee breach on the river in King County.

The levee breaches followed days of heavy rain and flooding that inundated communities, forced the evacuations of tens of thousands of people and prompted scores of rescues throughout western Washington state.

On Monday, crews used sandbags to shore up the Desimone levee beside the Green River after a small section of it failed following a week of heavy rains, prompting an evacuation order covering parts of three suburbs, officials said.

The evacuation order from King County was sent to about 1,100 homes and businesses east of the Green River in parts of Kent, Renton and Tukwila, said Brendan McCluskey, the county’s emergency management director. On Monday evening, King County officials announced that the evacuation alert was lifted east of the Green River and it was safe to return to the area. No one was injured, McCluskey said.

Authorities in Renton and Tukwila said Monday afternoon that the flooding was confined to small, industrial areas and that no residents were being evacuated.

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Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writer Christopher L. Keller contributed from Albuquerque, New Mexico.