She Roars Again

A brief history of the Snohomish River

Our Cascade Mountains 

Are so well named

Her slopes of snow and ice fields

Feed river after rushing river

And rivers feed rivers

As a child on Lord’s Hill

Every winter

We watched the valley below

Fill with mild flooding

Rains and mountain melt fed

The Skykomish, she fed the

Snohomish who would overrun her banks

Farmers had time to move herds

To higher ground

If lucky, as waters receded 

Leaving temporary ponds in fields

A cold snap would freeze them over

And we would descend with skates and sleds

I recall as a teen one year

Standing at the end of First Street

In the town of Snohomish

One of many watching 

Trees ripped from the earth far upstream

The debris of porches and decks

All piled as high as the pavement

A group praying, some aloud

Most silent, praying the bridge would hold

In its governmental wisdom

The Corp of Engineers diked her sloughs

December 2nd, 1975

She roared again, about 10pm

Ripping out three hundred feet of dike

Sending a Biblical torrent rushing

Over highways, vehicles, fields, houses,

Barns, the animals

Oh God, so many animals.

The waters in their time quieted to

A new unwanted lake on our maps

Fifty thousand acres of water stretching all the way

From Everett to Monroe, my hometown midway

When the waters finally receded enough

That I could visit my family

I drove the old winding valley road

Weeping, completely undone

The beautiful Lippazaners all gone

Cow carcasses on roofs

Family farms decimated

She roars again

Our Snohomish River

Making the national news

Thousands are inconvenienced 

Some just angry at impossible work commutes 

Hundreds driven from homes

Nonetheless memories are long

And humanity prepared with shelters, food, clothing

Even the Monroe’s Fairgrounds 

Has been converted to shelters for large animals

Let us pray 1975 never, ever repeats

Author's Note

Perhaps you have been watching the recent news of my hometown.