Mount Vernon Research and Extension Center braces for flooding

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - Leadership at Washington State University's Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center (NWREC) at Mount Vernon closed the station Thursday for the remainder of the week and made ready for high water amid evacuation and flood warnings.

The station is under a Level 3 evacuation warning, which asks all residents within the 100-yearfloodplain of the Skagit River to leave immediately.

Prior to the Level 3 notice, center team members prepared to evacuate at the advice of WSU, county, and state emergency managers. Staff readied sandbags using extra bags from the WSU Breadlab, raised equipment, and moved vehicles to high ground.

"We closed out of concern for people's safety which is our number one priority," said Tatum Weed, NWREC acting director. The center is closed through Friday.

In his 20 years at the station, Daniel Gorton, NWREC facilities and farm manager, said the site has never flooded. But with worst-case scenarios warning of record flooding, and the Skagit River just a half mile away, the team is taking every precaution.

"We're preparing for the worst and hoping for the best," Gorton said.

Facilities team members led caravans of state-owned vehicles to the WSU Breadlab at Burlington, which is in a safer location.

"We're trying to move everything up," Gorton said. "Yesterday, I instructed everyone to look at your labs and offices, get your computers on top of the desks, as high as you can go."

Students residing at the station's graduate student housing, the Olson House, have been temporarily relocated to homes off the site. Mobile generators are ready for use in protecting frozen scientific samples, should power be lost.

WSU's Puyallup Research and Extension Center, farther south, is not currently under an evacuation warning. High waters on the Puyallup River could potentially damage lands at the station's Farm Five, which hosts raspberry research and ground leased to farmers.