From the moment the amber alerts fired off for immediate evacuation, Students walked into the school already afraid of the record breaking flood.
“You guys [High School] were already in class. Cascade Middle School was already in class: rivers going to flood,” Recalled Ruth Richardson, SWSD Public Information Officer, on the discovery that school was going to have to be shut down when it had already been in session.
“Because people are like, ‘Well, why don’t you just turn around?” Richardson explained all the complexities that went into the decision.
“If you have a little kindergarten kiddo who’s on the school bus, you can’t just turn around and go drop them back off, because they may not have a parent at home.”
After students went home, the district worked to figure out the flood dangers and how to help those in need.
“I created this little map, and I said, ‘if you live here and below, you should probably consider evacuating, because you’re going to flood.’ However, it was important to know who needed to evacuate and those who didn’t. ‘If you live anywhere else in this map area, you’re okay. You don’t need to leave. And we posted that, and that had 560,000 views within a day,” Richardson said.
From December 8 to December 12 2025, floods stemming from the Nooksack, Skagit and Sumas River began to hit record breaking numbers, devastating the local areas. The last time the rivers had gotten this high was 2003 at 42.21, and were
predicted to get as high as 48 feet.
The water damage continued to disrupt daily life until December 18 when roads could reopen and recovery could truly begin for Washington Residents.
The city and community of Sedro-Woolley, with the support of the SWSD, was able to put their focus on other things. From food, transportation, schools, and pets, everyone reached out a limb for a family in need.
“This included activating all necessary resources,” said Frank Wagner, Sedro-Woolley’s Fire Chief The City of Sedro-Woolley opened their Emergency Operations Center which consists of an Incident Command Structure that handles Finance, Logistics, Operations, Planning and Public Information,“ Wagner said, on the immediate response from the community.
“With our need to evacuate communities that had populations that are bed bound, are in wheel chairs or are not independently able, the School District, SKAT Transit and Helping Hands Food Bank assisted with volunteers, box trucks and buses that enabled us to move almost 100 people, their supplies, food, medications and beds within an extremely short period of time.”
Meanwhile, Skagit Valley Humane Society was aiding in other areas. While other organizations were very busy with people, Skagit Valley Humane Society had been helping animals who would’ve otherwise been swept up by flooding.
“So by the morning of, I was able to go ahead, and I had a lot of organizations that reached out to us” said Janine , Executive Director of Skagit Valley Humane Society. “And what we did was evacuate our own dogs and our cats out of the building, so that way we can now assist and help our community. And so we were able to go ahead and get like 12 dogs out, and at the time, that’s how many we had on site in the building, and another 20 cats. We actually helped officially 1,414 dogs and cats for those animals directly impacted.”
Though this wasn’t as easy as getting Kennels.
“I’m still receiving calls from folks needing to go ahead and surrender, because now they’re displaced, so they’re displaced and that and so now they might have to surrender their pets due to the floods. We can care for them for a very short time, for up to a week, but then we have to still maintain a facility where we receive animals just because they’re running a stray or need to be surrendered,” Ceja said, a week after the flood.
While the flood disrupted many lives, it showed Sedro-Woolley’s resilience in crisis, While helping everyone Riverfront Park
in crisis, the true character of accommodation and persistence shone bright. The community managed high stress environments, eachother, and hope was seen because of it. So now that the community has gone through this, we’re better prepared for a better tomorrow.
When the floods began to dissipate, spirits slowly began to rise in Skagit County. For many as schools and businesses reopened, life returned to normal. Despite the troubles the city has faced, Fire Chief Wagner believes in the Woolley spirit. “These emergencies really show how amazing our community and our partnerships are.”
