Heavy rains unleash major flooding, evacuations in Pacific Northwest

SNOHOMISH, Washington >> Heavy rains drenching the Pacific Northwest triggered flooding today across much of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon north through Washington state and into British Columbia, closing dozens of roads and prompting widespread evacuations.

The intense downpours began earlier in the week, swept into the region by a storm system meteorologists call an atmospheric river, a vast airborne current of dense moisture funneled inland from the Pacific Ocean.

The western half of Washington state bore the heaviest brunt of the storm, with the U.S. National Weather Service posting flood watch warnings from the Cascade Mountains to Puget Sound, as well as for the north-central edge of Oregon.

The Weather Service said the storm had dumped 5 to 10 inches of rain over wide swaths