Flooding
Following a snowy weekend, the Puget Sound region was drenched with torrential rains, causing major flooding, road closures, re-routing buses and mudslides throughout Seattle.
“This is the kind of rain that pushes all of our systems and resources to their limits,” said Mayor Greg Nickels Monday in a press release . “Hundreds of City of Seattle workers have responded, working hard to keep people safe, protect property and keep the city moving. We’ll keep our emergency center open and crews out in the field as long as needed.”
According Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, the storm dumped about 6 billion gallons into the city’s drainage system, or roughly six times the volume of Green-lake; constituting what he called the “Second-Wettest Day in City History”. He later admitted that drainage system that the city was built around simply wasn’t designed to handle that much water.
The UW also experienced the effects of the storm on campus as streams of rainwater ran through the streets and walkways on campus. Many students with classes in Condon Hall, including myself, were forced to relocate to dryer locations as storm waters flooded the basement. However, crews had already started pumping out the lower floor of the building by mid-afternoon and according to the UW Office of the Registrar, classes will be meeting back in their usual classrooms tomorrow.
For more updates on this and other campus emergencies, visit http://depts.washington.edu/registra/emergency/
