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| | | Temperature: 53.7°F | Humidity: 88% | Pressure: 30.02in (Rising) | Conditions: Clear | Wind Direction: SE | Wind Speed: 0.0mph |
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| | | SULTAN |
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HAZARDS INFORMATION EVENT SCHEDULED FOR SULTAN
February 23, 2010
 New Orleans after flooding in 2005 with "only" 15 to 20 feet of water. Culmback Dam failure in Sky Valley would bring 40 feet of water in places. CLICK TO ENLARGE
The event is a product of “Planning Partners,” a group of 50 agencies within Snohomish County that have worked since 2005 to develop and submit the first ever county wide hazards mitigation plan to the federal government.
The plan was used to identify potential hazards to the many cities, regions and agencies within the county and to identify and inventory assets that could help during an emergency or natural disaster.
The plan is also the basis for grant money that planning partners have received to reduce the identified hazards.
The open house at Sultan Middle school will feature displays and information about the greatest risks that have been identified as facing the Sultan and upper Sky Valley areas.
Those risks are floods, earth quakes, wild land fires, hazardous materials leaks and a failure of the Culmback Dam – a dam that holds back waters of the huge Spada Lake reservoir at the top of Sultan Basin.
A Culmback dam failure would put extensive portions of Sultan and Monroe under water up to 40 feet high in places, according to Snohomish County PUD officials during an interview with the Sky Valley Chronicle, and would affect the entire Sky Valley with flooding to varying degrees for days afterward.
To put that 40-foot tower of water in perspective, the deepest flooding level experienced by New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was about 21 feet. Many parts of the city were under “only” 15 feet of water.
New Orleans flooded on August 29, 2005. A full three months later – after “only” 15 to 20 feet of water - neighborhoods were still dark, garbage was piled high on streets, and bodies were still being found.
Four years later, thousands of displaced residents in Mississippi and Louisiana were still living in trailers. And today in 2010 New Orleans is nowhere near the city it was pre-Katrina.
To say that 40 feet of water flooding areas of the Sky Valley – or even 20 or 15 feet in places – and then taking days to subside and flow out through the river systems would be a “Katrina like” event for the Sky Valley might not be a stretch of imagination.
Valley residents can take an online survey about hazards identified so far. The results will help local planning officials identify what resident’s concerns are.
The survey can be taken here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/snocohazardmitigationsurvey
The New Orleans Times-Pacayune newspaper has an interactive flood animation page that demonstrates visually how New Orleans flooded once the levies dikes and floodgates failed.
The animation is here http://www.nola.com/katrina/graphics/flashflood.swf
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