A final draft of the college’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Flood Response Plan is now available for viewing.  The plan protects both people and property at valley locations including Kent Campus, Downtown Auburn Center and other smaller learning sites. 

At the heart of the plan, according to Fred Creek, director of Campus Safety is a flood alert matrix the college will use to determine when to evacuate valley locations.  Both a four-stage flood alert system developed by King County Emergency Management and weather bulletins from the National Weather Service will be used during the decision-making process, said Creek. 

Generally speaking, the college will begin evacuation procedures when the flow of the Green River hits 12,000 cubic feet per second, which is nearing capacity, or when the National Weather Service issues a Flood Warning for the river.  “Our plan is to give ample time, perhaps as much as 12 hours of notice or more, to students and staff that classes will be canceled at valley locations,” said Creek.  “This will allow everyone plenty of time to leave the area and not get caught in a last minute panic situation.”

A website has been developed for employees and students with flood information www.greenriver.edu/floodwatch that includes river monitoring tools and links to a variety of other flood information sources. 

The plan was necessitated by concerns the Green River may flood for the next several years due to problems discovered last January at the Howard Hanson Dam.  Dire predictions of flooding earlier this year – some as great as a one-in-three chance – have been reduced to a one in 25 chance as recent as late last week, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, who operate the dam. 

Extensive work on a “grout curtain” will increase capacity in the reservoir behind the dam.  Earlier this summer, Army engineers believed that leakage under the earthen dam would only allow a storage capacity in the reservoir of 30 percent.  Now, engineers feel the reservoir can store 50 percent of capacity, lessening the chance the Corps would have to flood the valley to protect a catastrophic failure at the dam.