Kittitas County Creates Flood Task Force

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Story Published: Oct 28, 2009 at 5:42 PM PDT

By Melissa Wagner

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KITTITAS COUNTY - Landslides, flooding, we've seen it all in this area. And the clean up is always costly. Kittitas County is still playing catch up from the floods that hit back in January. But the county's determined to stay ahead of the game from now on. And it's created a Flood Task Force to pull all the pieces together.

Sara Leath was caught in the flooding in January, " It was up to our butts."

That's the sentiment of most folks who were flooded out in Kittitas County at the beginning of the year. Home and business owners alike were scrambling when the waters hit, most caught off guard by the swiftness of it all.

The local KOA's entire playground area was completely covered with flood water last year and the owner tells me this year she's still worried it could happen again in the spring. " You're not kidding I'm worried. It's devastating. You just don't realize what a flood will do to you," said Leath.

The county gets its flood warning information from the national weather service and two other services. But Public Works Director, Kirk Holmes says it's time to get the word out faster, when the flood danger is high, " What we want to be able to do is gather our own and make our own predictions, so we can get that early warning out to people that might be in harms way."

The county's newly created Flood Task Force will help do that. Dozens of agencies will work together to create an electronic alert system, with hourly email updates for residents. They'll also put more gauges in the river to give them that updated information.

But the county is taking it slow, making sure it has all the parts and people in place before warnings go out to residents.

Holmes said, " The worst thing we want to do is kick everybody out of their house and nothing happens."

The Task Force project will be ongoing, improving from year to year warning times, recovery efforts and getting federal damage funding back to the county faster. So Kittitas County folks can feel more relaxed come spring. And not have to worry so much about what mother nature will bring.

The best thing about this Task Force is that it will not require any extra money from residents. The public works department has asked for $100,000 in next year's budget to cover flooding and related emergencies. The agencies involved in the task force are also able to offer time, resources and staff to cover the project.

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