Flood — Yakima, Washington

2017-03-16 to 2017-03-17 · near Brace, Yakima, Washington

Event narrative

On March 15th, high flows on Cowiche Creek caused a section of a levee that had previously been damaged to breech, opening a 20 foot wide gap. The water followed along Highway 12 with the bulk of the water flowing into an irrigation canal. On March 16th, water inundated the intersection of North 40th and Fruitvale Boulevard, flooding a number of businesses and parking lots and the Riverview Mobile Home Park. Public Works tried to divert the water into Myron Lake, with a channel expected to take the water back from the lake to the Naches River. Instead, the water overflowed from Myron Lake into Willow Lake and then Aspen Lake, where it overflowed into neighborhoods surrounding the lakes.

Wider weather episode

Snow melt, combined with periods rain, resulted in numerous streams flooding across south-central Washington.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (46.6285, -120.5827)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 683658. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.