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Hey there from the KUOW Newsroom. This is Seattle Now. I'm Patricia Murphy. Before we get

into the news, a reminder, it's our winter fundraising drive. We couldn't deliver this reporting without

listeners like you. All of KUOW's work is community funded and people-powered. If you're able to

help out with a tax-deductible end of year gift, just click the link in the show notes and thanks.

Now, on to the news. It's Wednesday, December 17th. King County crews are working to shore up

damaged and threatened levees after a week and a half of historic flooding. John Taylor heads

the County Department of Natural Resources and Parks. He says the region's levees have never been

under so much pressure. We have not seen this levy system stress tested for such extended period of time.

We're in it for a week. We're probably going to be in it for another week.

So what you have is you have these earthen levee structures just being saturated and being under constant pressures.

The county says its flood patrol looks for warning signs a levy might fail,

like water seeping through and cracks and roads and trails atop levees.

...