The Army Corps of Engineers has finally released their flood scenario maps to the public. These maps were the original source of the data used in our Renton interactive map, via the city of Renton. The Corps, both on their site and in this Seattle Times article, makes an important caveat:
The scenarios cannot consider every uncertainty associated with an actual flood event. In short, these are not the only scenarios possible, but allow for planning degrees of response. The maps do not take into consideration work being done along the river in regards to levee fortification and again may not accurately reflect inundation.
Still, the maps provide useful information, and we hope to use them in an interactive “depiction” very soon.
Another useful tool is from the NOAA, a page showing current & forecast river levels at the Auburn gage. This can be used in coordination with the Corps maps, which are based off of measurements at the same location–for example, their lowest flood scenario is 13900 cubic feet per second (cfs) at that part of the river. At the moment, the river is at about 1400 cfs (or 1.4 kcfs), and isn’t expected to get higher than 2000 cfs in the next few days.
