Beaver dam breaks, flood waters surge around Wash. homes

By KOMO Staff Published: Nov 5, 2012 at 1:48 PM PDT Last Updated: Nov 5, 2012 at 6:05 PM PDT
Beaver dam breaks, flood waters surge around Wash. homes

DUVALL, Wash. -- A home in Duvall, Washington, was flooded by a surprise river of water after a beaver dam naturally broke late Monday morning and unleashed a 3-acre pond.

Aerial video showed running water rushing through one home with another near the flood waters in the area just north of where SR-203 meets NE and 124th Street.

"It was splashing up going 8 -10 feet in the air and then that's when the big stumps and the big logs starting coming across," said witness Brian Johnson.

Johnson says he was just driving by when he said he spotted the mess unfolding.

"All of a sudden there was like a 5 foot wall of water across the road," he said.

"The water and all the debris that tends to accumulate behind such a structure has washed down stream," said Lynn Miller with King County Emergency Management.

Crews were still assessing how many people were affected by the flood.

"There are homes impacted, but no word at all that any lives are in danger," Miller said.

It all stemmed from a beaver dam that locals say they went to the county a year ago asking something be done, but county officials say this particular dam was not on their list of dangerous ones.

"They take this very seriously there are people who monitor those for the county," said Miller. "This one wasn't on the radar it didn't have a level of threat, as I understand it."

Some roads in the area were covered in water after after the dam broke just after 11 a.m. But road crews were able to reopen the roads just before 2:30 p.m.

Police, fire and King County road crews were on the scene helping those affected.