The following is written by Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow:
Before we get into the fun and festivities of Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season, I just want to comment on yesterday’s threat of flooding.
We have an excellent group of people here at the City of Sumner, all of whom really swung into gear yesterday. Even before noon, they were watching the rivers and predictions and didn’t stop until the river safely crested below flood stage last evening. We opened an emergency operations center early and didn’t close down until the danger had passed. Although not everyone sees what is happening, spotters were along the river; the Public Works crews were filling and placing sand bags; the IT people were setting up emergency laptops and phone lines to serve you; and all the staff dropped their normal workload to help keep you safe and informed.
On any kind of incident like this, we try to find the balance between getting ahead of an emergency and causing unnecessary worry. This one was close enough that we advised evacuations along the river, but we were happy that they turned out to be not necessary.
We escaped this particular threat with only minor flooding, yet we continue to persevere to reduce the risk of flooding in Sumner. We built the protective wall around the treatment plant several years ago so that the plant keeps working normally. We installed a one-way valve on a storm line so that when the Puyallup River rises, it doesn’t back up water onto Highway 410 and the adjacent neighborhood. We are also trying to work with our county and Federal legislators to improve the banks of the White River on our north end and replace the Stewart Road Bridge with one that doesn’t put pillars in the river to block up debris and cause further damage. It’s an ongoing effort, but one that won’t stop, probably ever, as long as we live along two rivers.
One challenge that we faced this time was combatting false reports about the treatment plant being in danger of flooding when, in fact, it was not even close to being in any danger. We tracked down the origin of that report to an office in Seattle but by that time, the proverbial toothpaste was out of the tube. Some citizens were even creating their own reports on social media, advising people to stop flushing toilets. One large business in Sumner was close to shutting down because of this rumor. We really appreciated some of the local media who tried to correct the rumor, as well as the citizens and businesses who called us to double check before spreading it.
Again, thank you for your patience and action yesterday. We will continue to work with other agencies to get you accurate and timely information in the future, not only from the City of Sumner, but also from our regional partners and your neighbors.
