Flooding at and around Harvey Field [Credit: Meg Godlewski]
Key Takeaways:
Washington state is experiencing widespread severe flooding due to back-to-back atmospheric rivers, leading to a declared statewide emergency and impacting communities and areas around local airports.
Several airports, including Harvey Field and Auburn Municipal, faced challenges with rising river levels and surrounding floodwaters, prompting pilots to proactively move aircraft to higher ground or other locations.
While some airports reported no direct damage to their fields, surrounding residential and industrial areas experienced significant flooding and road closures, making airport access difficult.
Pilots remain vigilant, monitoring flood warnings and the dynamic weather situation (with receding waters in some areas but continued rain and wind forecasts), impacting general aviation operations.
It has been a tense week for people living in Washington state, where back-to-back atmospheric rivers have drenched the region, overloading rivers, breaching levees, and triggering massive flooding in communities and around local airports.
The water has begun to recede in some areas, but not so much in others. And there is more rain in the forecast.
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Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.
![Flooding at and around Harvey Field [Photo: Meg Godlewski | FLYING]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Screenshot-2025-12-23-at-9.20.47-AM.png)
