SEATTLE — It's only days away from the third and final king tide of the season. A king tide refers to the highest tide of the year and occurs monthly from November through January.
Seattle Public Utilities has spent weeks stacking sandbags, more than three feet high in some areas. Those who live in the South Park neighborhood come to check on river levels because they haven’t forgotten what happened weeks ago when flood water surged into homes and businesses.
The cleanup continues from December’s king tide. Standing behind a barricade of colorful sandbags, Alfredo Alvarez still can’t move back into his walkout basement home.
His belongings were either destroyed or placed in one of the storage containers that now line South Kenyon Street. Alvarez is living in a downtown Seattle hotel which he says adds 20 to 30 minutes to his commute.
“At 7 o'clock p.m. I go to my hotel in Downtown Seattle and at 7 o’clock a.m. I drive home to pick up my tools,” said Alvarez.
He hopes to be back home within a month, depending on what happens with this king tide.
“What I can show you is we’ve got a big area of high pressure building in along the west coast and that higher atmospheric pressure will tend to push the tide down,” said KING 5 meteorologist Rich Marriott.
Marriott has been tracking the National Weather Service and NOAA predictions for January’s king tide.
“I’d say in South Park for example that you probably will see something more typical of when you see king tides this time of year. There will be tidal overflows, there will be some flooding but it won’t be to the magnitude of what we saw in December,” Marriott said.
“This area was a sofa and bed for visitors,” said Alvarez who took KING 5 into his home. His bed, sofa and stove had all been destroyed among countless other items.
Alvarez is from Guatemala originally and says everyone who lives in this house has similar origins. "It is very good here, yeah.”
His community is on this street and he’s counting down the days until he can come back. "I love it here.”
In addition to the sandbags, the city is developing a community notification system to alert when a high tide with potential for flooding is expected. Seattle Public Utilities is also on site and will stay through this next king tide which is expected next Monday morning.