Good thing this isn’t along a particularly busy road – it’s on dead-end Maplewood Place, south of Fauntleroy, in the downhill lane – but it’s a reminder that the ground is already saturated even before this weekend’s expected heavy rain arrives. The city had a landslide-awareness workshop in West Seattle just last weekend, in fact. Right now, all of Western Washington is on alert for a flood watch in effect Saturday afternoon through Monday afternoon, with suggestions that even here in the “lowlands,” we could get two inches or so of rain. (P.S. If a slide does happen, here’s the city’s list of who to call/what to do.)
ADDED 3:01 PM: Not long after we finished this and ran out to an interview, Seattle Public Utilities sent its own advisory about the looming storm, including this information of note:
In preparation for the storm, SPU has assigned extra field operations workers to report to work Saturday and Sunday, and has staged flood control equipment at various locations around the city. The Utility is also delivering about 500 pre-packed sandbags to the Meadowbrook and Delridge Community Center (250 at each), today.
SPU is reminding the public to play it safe by staying out of low-lying areas during times of heavy rains. If your basement is prone to flooding, please stay out of the basement until the risk of flooding has passed.
The public’s help is also requested in keeping Seattle’s 78,000 street drains – the city’s first line of defense against storms – free of debris. Cleaning a blocked street drain is simple: using a rake, just scrape the debris from the drain and place it in your yard waste cart.
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