SILVANA, Wash. — The images of Silvana, a small town in Snohomish County, taken on Tuesday show the area underwater.
Parts of Pioneer Highway were closed leaving people in Silvana to wait out the water's rise and fall.
“This one kind of surprised people because it came up so fast and there was no snow melt. That was all rain,” said Silvana resident Jim Payne.
Payne said for roughly 20 years, he's been watching Silvana flood. The one-road town is surrounded by rivers.
Flooding is common in late fall, Payne said.
“It's just kind of part of life,” he said.
In 2014, he rebuilt his business, Willow and Jim's Country Café, to withstand floodwaters. The building no longer has a basement and sits a few feet about ground level.
“If I could have built it another inch higher, I would have,” said Payne.
Tuesday’s flood won't be the last and Payne said it wasn’t the worst. He said floods in 2009 stand out of some of the worst he’s seen since taking over the country cafe in 2001.
After two decades of watching Pioneer Highway fill with water, he knows thanks to the floods there's something he'll likely never see.
“As many times as I've cursed the floods, they've been such a blessing. Because you're never going to see strip-malls; it will always be farm country,” said Payne.