In Pierce County, officials at the emergency operations center sent out a notice to 200 residents south of Orting near the Carbon River encouraging them to evacuate due to rising river levels.

Becky Newell was one of those 200 leaving her home along the river bank.

"I'm not afraid of my house getting a little water in it," she says, but she is concerned about river debris jumping the dikes. "And if (the shoreline) breaks down too far, I won't be able to get out the road."

A number of residents in the Gold Bar area of Snohomish County have contacted KOMO News to say the Skykomish River is already flooding in several places.

In Cosmopolis, a small dam failed, flooding several streets and nearby homes with several inches of water. The dam at Mill Creek Park gave way after it was weakened by a falling tree. The city has hired a contractor to make repairs.

Also in Grays Harbor County, The WSDOT reports water has covered several highways in the Aberdeen area: Highway 12 at Aberdeen, Highway 101 near Artic and also in places on Highway 8 and 108.

The Snohomish County Public Works department is delivering sand and sandbags to a half-dozen fire stations and parks where people can pick them up.

Snohomish County has opened barns at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe to take in horses and cows that have been moved out of floodwaters.

The Red Cross has also opened shelters in Sultan (VOA Sky Valley Camp, 701 First St.) and in Monroe (The Rock Church, 16891 146th St. SE.)

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for numerous rivers in Western Washington on Tuesday night as a series of Pacific storms brought heavy rain in the Olympics and Cascades. Rain there has been falling at the rate of over 0.50" an hour and some spots had already received over 5" of rain as of early Wednesday morning with more on the way.

The river list is impressive and includes the Satsop, Nooksack, Skokomish, Skagit, Stillaguamish, Skykomish, Snohomish, Tolt, Snoqualmie, Cedar, Deschutes, Carbon, Puyallup, Nisqually, Cowlitz and Chehalis Rivers. The Deschutes and Bogachiel are new additions Wednesday morning.

Flooding on the Nisqually River has forced officials to close Mount Rainier National Park.

"The waters of Kautz Creek are now flowing over the park road," Taylor said.

The road to Longmire has flood over and there are about 20 park employees and seven hotel were guests stranded at the Longmire facility, Taylor said. They were later escorted out using a service road.

Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga says he hopes the park will be able to reopen as soon as the rain tapers off and the water level drops.

River Information:

We've compiled a list of internet sites that will help you get more information about flooding, including road closures. You can find it at this link.

As of 11:20 a.m., here is the forecasted breakdown of rivers (Click on each river for detailed river forecast information). The Carbon River was dropped to major from "near record" several other rivers have been downgraded -- mainly the far northern ones where the rain has let up.

Near Record:
Puyallup near Orting
Skykomish at Gold Bar

Major:
Carbon at Fairfax
Cowlitz at Packwood
Cowlitz at Randle
Nisqually near National
Skagit near Concrete
Skokomish near Potlatch
Snohomish near Monroe
Snohomish near Snohomish
Snoqualmie near the Falls
Snoqualmie near Carnation
Tolt near Carnation

Moderate:
Cedar near Landsburg
Satsop near Satsop
Skagit near Mount Vernon

Minor:
Bogachiel near La Push
Cedar near Renton
Chehalis near Grand Mound.
Deschutes near Rainier
Nooksack at Ferndale
Nooksack at N. Cedarville
Nooksack (S. Fork at Saxon Bridge)
Puyallup at Puyallup
Stillaguamish (S. Fork near Granite Falls)
Stillaguamish (North fork near Arlington)
Stillaguamish at Arlington

Go to this link to see the latest river and wind warnings.

Here are some other rainfall totals from private weather spotters who have phoned in their totals to the National Weather Service:

Montesano: 5.70" of rain in 12 hours
Grand Mound: 2.84" of rain in 24 hours
Randle: 2.25" of rain in 17 hours
Shelton: 2.06" of rain in 24 hours
Black Diamond: 1.75" in 24 hours

Latest Forecast

The storm's cold front is slowly sagging south through the day Wednesday, and the rain has let up in the North Cascades. Heavy rain will continue in the Central and South Cascades through the afternoon, but slowly taper from the north, and by evening, most of the steady rain should be down in Oregon.

Those in the Puget Sound area must wonder what all the fuss was about as rain totals were running about an inch or less, but that was due to the Olympic Rain Shadow.

With the nearly west-to-east orientation of the front and upper level winds, it means a lot of rain was blocked by the Olympic Mountains. Since midnight, Seattle (Sea-Tac Airport) had received about 2/3 of a inch of rain, while Everett had only netted about 1/3 of an inch in the rain bucket. But Olympia and Hoquiam have had nearly 1.50" -- and look at those totals in Montesano -- nearly 6" of rain in 12 hours!

So don't let the not-so-heavy rain fool you here -- especially those who live near the mouths of mountain rivers. It might not be raining much here, but it's dumping buckets upon buckets in the mountains so don't let your guard down.

Help Be A Weather Spotter

When a storm rolls through, you never really know for sure how much rain will fall, but you at home can play a big role in helping forecasters learn about the wide-ranging climate in the Northwest.

The National Weather Service is recruiting volunteers to measure the daily rain, hail and snow at their house, then put it in a database that's accessible to the public.

So far, they have 400 people signed up, but they still need hundreds more.

If you'd like to join or get more information, go to CoCoRaHS.org

Winds

This storm was windier than the past few, but didn't cause many problems. The highest wind gusts were around 40-45 mph in the few hours after midnight and are now on their way down.

Here are some peak gusts since midnight. Note that I didn't bother with any gusts under 25 knots, so some major cities that were left off just didn't get that windy.

• Hoquiam: 49 mph
• Alki Beach (Seattle): 42 mph
• Shelton: 40 mph
• Seattle (Sand Point): 38 mph
• Gig Harbor/Tacoma (Narrows Airport): 38 mph
• Seattle (West Point/Magnolia): 36 mph
• Everett: 36 mph
• Bellingham: 35 mph
• Oak Harbor: 33 mph
• Seattle (Sea-Tac): 33 mph
• Olympia: 28 mph

We Start To Calm Down!

The rains will taper off from the north as the day progresses, and by Wednesday night, we'll just see a few showers.

We'll dry out for Thursday, and then should actually enjoy a streak of dry days through the middle of next week.