SEAHAWKS SPECIAL n
The 12s speak, fan quiz
GOOD LIFE
Is Sherman mellowing? Plus Marshawn Lynch poster
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SPORTS n
The NFL and Deflategate
VIEWPOINTS
01.25.2015
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Everett, Wash.
Inslee: Step up for roads
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$1.50 (higher in outlying areas)
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HeraldNet.com
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Facebook.com/HeraldNet
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Twitter: @EverettHerald
AFTER THE FLOOD
By Jerry Cornfield Herald Writer
OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee isn’t backing away from his decision to fund just two new projects in Snohomish County over the next 12 years in his statewide transportation package. And he’s not backing away from comments made this week to civic leaders in Arlington, where he said that only a third of the county’s delegation of state lawmakers have stepped up to the plate to help pass a package. A spokesman said Friday that there is no nexus between the perceived lack of political support and the number of county projects included in the governor’s $12.2 billion proposal. The Herald got it wrong with a story implying the governor made such a link in his remarks in Arlington, communications director David Postman wrote in an email response to questions. See ROADS, Page A10 MARK MULLIGAN / THE HERALD
More than 50 wolves at home in Washington now. Local, B1
ON HOLD WITH IRS
Expect budget cuts to hurt customer service this tax season. Moneywise, E1
Celebrations . .A4 Classified . . . . E2
Crossword . . .D4 Dear Abby . . . .D5
Homeowners hope county will step up with federal grants to buy houses on crumbling riverbanks By Noah Haglund and Kari Bray Herald Writers
ARLINGTON — The daylight basement has a river view. You just have to look past the white stakes, yellow caution tape and tarp-covered cliffside less than 10 feet from the back door. The other 20 feet of the Mott family’s backyard has sloughed away. The remnant lump of rocks, mud and tangled plants now lies three stories below at the base of a cliff, braced against the current of the South Fork Stillaguamish River. “That’ll all wash away,” homeowner Rob Mott said. When he and his wife, Cathie Dunne-Mott, bought the house in Arlington’s Jordan River Trails neighborhood in 1982, it never occurred to him that the backyard full of cedar trees would disappear. He’s hoping that Snohomish County will approve a buyout for the house before it, too, tumbles
Horoscope . . .D4 Lottery . . . . . .A2
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Moneywise . . . E1 Movies . . . . . .D5
Obituaries . . . . B3 Viewpoints . . . B7
down the bank. “It’s amazing how fast the river changes.” Floods are Western Washington’s most predictable natural hazard, apt to make an appearance from fall to spring in any given year. The problems include rising flood waters as well as erosion undercutting banks, like the one below Mott’s house on the east side of the Stilly. Every summer the stretch of the Stilly near a pedestrian-suspension bridge turns into a highway for rafts and inner tubes. The winter flood season is less predictable and more dramatic. Mott’s seen the swift water make off with some unexpected prizes. “I saw a refrigerator floating down there once,” he recalled. “And somebody’s front porch.” Local rivers can claim entire houses. In recent history, it’s happened at a rate of nearly one a year. Earlier this month, a Gold Bar home toppled into a See FLOOD, Page A8
No kidding 58/43, C8
VOL . 114, NO . 349 © 2015 THE DAILY HERALD CO .
SUNDAY
WOLF RECOVERY
Rob Mott stands at the edge of a washout into the South Fork Stillaguamish River just 10 feet from the back door of his home in Arlington’s Jordan River Trails neighborhood. The bank used to extend another 20 feet from where he stands and was full of trees and brush.
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