And while the river did see record flows at Mount Vernon, both the dikes and a downtown floodwall held up. The city isn’t out of the woods yet — Ezelle said the Skagit could return to a major flood stage next week.

In the nearby town of Burlington, the river did overtop a slough off the Skagit. Officials sent a warning early Friday morning to evacuate for all 11,000 Burlington residents as some neighborhoods and roadways flooded, though not all of them ultimately needed to leave.

“In the middle of the night, about a thousand people had to flee their homes in a really dire situation,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a news conference on Friday afternoon.

The flood event has set records across Washington state and it prompted officials to ask about 100,000 people to evacuate this week, forced dozens of rescues and caused widespread destruction of roads and other infrastructure.

Washington state is prone to intense spells of fall rainfall, but these storms have been exceptional. The atmospheric rivers this week dumped as much as 16 inches of rain in Washington’s Cascade mountains over about three days, according to National Weather Service data.

Because many rivers and streams were already running high and the soil was already saturated, the water tore through lowland communities. The Skagit River system is the third biggest on the U.S. west coast, and at Mount Vernon, this is the highest the river has ever run in recorded history.

“There has been no reported loss of life at this time,” Ferguson said. “The situation is very dynamic, but we’re exceedingly grateful.”

By Friday afternoon, while many roadways near Burlington remained closed, parts of downtown bustled with car traffic, as national guardsmen were waving people away from road closures and curious residents were out snapping photos of the swollen Skagit. Downstream, in the town of Conway, a tree trunk and the metal siding of a trailer could be seen racing away in the current.

The dramatic week of flooding sets the stage for a difficult recovery, in a growing state that’s already struggling to provide shelter to homeless residents. It’s not clear how many homes have been damaged, but neighborhoods in dozens of towns and cities took on water. Recovery won’t be quick — after flooding in 2021, some residents who lost their homes were displaced for months.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed the state’s request for an expedited emergency declaration, which will enable people to seek individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for things like temporary housing and home repairs. The measure will also allow state and local governments to seek federal assistance to remove debris and repair roads, bridges, water facilities and other infrastructure.

The Trump administration has made suggestions it would overhaul FEMA and prove less disaster relief to states. In left-leaning Washington, the president’s pen to paper offered another an initial sigh of relief.

“One of the challenges that we’ve had with the administration in the past is that they don’t really want to do longer term recovery,” said Rep. Rick Larsen, who represents Burlington and Mount Vernon. In an interview with NBC News, Larsen added that the declaration was “an indication that they understand how disastrous this particular disaster is and we’re not out of it yet.”

The next atmospheric river storm on tap will likely arrive Sunday night.

Jeff Michalski, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Seattle, said a few days of dry weather will allow most rivers to recede, before they begin to swell again on Tuesday, as the rainfall pulses downstream.

Lowland parts of western Washington will receive about an inch of rain during the storm; the mountains could get up to three.

“It could possibly either prolong flooding or cause renewed flooding on some of the rivers,” Michalski said. “A few rivers may bump back into flood stage moving into the Tuesday, Wednesday time frame, but we’re not expecting widespread major flood levels like we have seen.”

After Wednesday, the forecast calls for more rain in lowland Washington and heavy snow in the Cascades.

“It does not let up,” Michalski said.

Ferguson said the situation would remain “dynamic and unpredictable” over the next week.

“This is not just a one- or two- day crisis. These water levels have been historic and they’re going to remain very high for an extended period of time,” Ferguson said. “That puts pressure on our infrastructure. The infrastructure has, for the most part, withstood the challenge so far.”

Less than three weeks after firing longtime football head coach Bruce Barnum, Portland State has found a replacement in an attempt to revive the struggling program.

The school reached an agreement this week with Central Washington head coach Chris Fisk, a source close to the program confirmed. The Wildcats went 48-22 in Fisk’s four-year tenure and reached the Division II playoffs each of the last three years.

He was expected to meet with his players in Ellensburg Friday morning.

Originally from Pocatello, Idaho, Fisk was previously the co-offensive coordinator and coached the offensive line at CWU. He held the same role at NAIA Southern Oregon from 2011-15.

Fisk was among 12 candidates who interviewed for the position, with Fisk emerging quickly as teh favorite.

He is expected to be introduced at Portland State early next week.

Central Washington finished 10-2 this season, including a 9-0 mark in the Lone Star Conference to win the 10-team league. Last month, the American Football Coaches Association honored Fisk as the Division II Super Region 4 Coach of the Year.  

The 48-year-old Fisk steps into the position with a mountain of challenges ahead of him. The obstacles facing Portland State football have been well-told, from their lack of resources to playing home games nearly 15 miles from campus at Hillsboro Stadium.

Fisk will also face fundraising challenges, especially in the age of NIL and revenue sharing — areas that PSU has admittedly lagged.

His predecessor, Barnum, went 39-75 in 11 seasons, posting a winning record just once. Barnum often lamented the school’s need to play multiple “money” games each season against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents to subsidize costs.

This fall, the Vikings went 1-11, with their lone win coming on Nov. 1 at Cal Poly. Barnum was fired on Nov. 22 with one year and $210,000 remaining on his contract.

It was not immediately clear how much Fisk will earn in his first season, but the salary is expected to be similar to that of Barnum.

Fisk is the second head coach hired by athletic director Matt Billings since he ascended to athletic director last winter. In April, he tabbed former Portland Pilots star Karlie Burris to lead the women’s basketball program.