Western Washington’s Spring Floods
Heavy rains and rising rivers in the Skagit, Fraser, and Columbia valleys damage crops and farmland.
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A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The weekly crop bulletin issued by Director H. F. Alciatore of the state weather service for the week ending May 28 states that, while Western Washington has experienced favorable, warm sunshine, the overflowing of the Skagit, Fraser, and Columbia rivers has resulted in considerable damage to crops on the low lands adjoining them. In some portions of Clarke County, crops are entirely under water. Oats and barley will suffer seriously in portions of Snohomish County. The partly cloudy weather of the past day or so has checked the floods a little, affording some relief to the flood sufferers.
“The overflowing of the Skagit, Fraser and Columbia rivers has resulted in considerable damage to crops on the low lands adjoining.”
Spring flooding remains a recurring reality for the Skagit and Snohomish river valleys, a challenge that city planners and farmers have been negotiating since the 1890s. Today's flood mitigation strategies are more advanced, yet the tension between agricultural land use and river management continues to shape the local landscape.
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