The Skagit River begins to recede near Concrete, Washington on Dec. 17, 2025. (Photo by Eli Voorhies for Washington State Standard)
CONCRETE, Wash. — On Wednesday morning, sunlight glinted off the mud and moisture that still blanketed this small town in the Cascade foothills, hinting at what it had just endured.
Concrete residents held their breath through a spate of natural disasters and severe weather that unfolded over the past two weeks.
Atmospheric rivers dumped rain across western Washington, causing historic flooding in and around Whatcom and Skagit counties.
Concrete, located along Highway 20 in Skagit County, felt the effects.
The nearby Skagit River crested at record-breaking levels last Thursday.
While Concrete’s downtown did not flood, areas closer to the river did. As of Wednesday, some homes on the outskirts of Concrete were still surrounded by water. Since then, the water level has fluctuated and receded to minor flood stage as of Thursday.
On top of that, a series of small earthquakes rattled the town awake Monday morning, the strongest one peaking at magnitude 2.9, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
The rain triggered three minor mudslides at Burpee Hill, Lake Shannon Road and Eriksen Place, forcing evacuations.
Constricted between hills rising into the North Cascades and tall evergreen trees, Concrete residents feared more slides, some recalling the massive Oso landslide of 2014, which happened after heavy rainfall and claimed 43 lives.
Work has been underway to survey the slide areas in and around the town.
Local officials in Concrete said geology technicians had not reported any concerns yet with the Burpee Hill and Eriksen Place slide sites. County officials involved in inspecting the Lake Shannon Road mudslide could not be reached for comment.
Seventeen-year-old Kimi Ward was in the kitchen with one of her dogs when they heard the mudslide above them at Eriksen Place around 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 11.
“We just heard crashing,” Ward said. “My mom is pretty nervous because she’s been living here for 30 years. If it were to hit our house, we’d lose everything.”
Over on East Main Street, directly below the small mudslide on Shannon Lake Road, households also faced evacuation advisories. Casie Jo Manke said this wasn’t the first time a landslide had come through her neighborhood, though she wasn’t concerned this time.
The previous owner of her home had reinforced all three walls facing the nearby hill with extra concrete after a previous slide. Manke said that beneath a grassy park across the street were tennis courts buried by that earlier landslide.
Roads to the mudslide site in the Burpee Hill neighborhood were closed Wednesday, and the neighborhood was still under a Level 3 evacuation notice, indicating immediate danger.
With slide concerns and flood threats subsiding, some sense of normalcy is returning to Concrete. Schools went back in session on Wednesday. Ward was even planning to play in a basketball game on Lummi Island that night.
Immediate aid has shifted to other areas. The National Guard left Concrete on Tuesday. The Red Cross moved its operation to Everson on Wednesday. Randy Mueller, shelter supervisor, said that cots in Concrete had been empty the night before.
The fallout from the storms and flooding is far from over in northwest Washington, with other parts of Whatcom and Skagit counties — like Sumas, Everson and Nooksack — still facing dire conditions.
This post was originally authored and published by Eli Voorhies from Washington State Standard via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
