About two hours after a levee on the lower Green River broke, bringing the possibility of a life-threatening flash flood to parts of Tukwila, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay held a press conference outside the King County Emergency Operations Center in Renton. by Nathalie Graham About two hours after a levee on the lower Green River broke, bringing the possibility of a life-threatening flash flood to parts of Tukwila, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay held a press conference outside the King County Emergency Operations Center in Renton. “This is a very serious and emerging situation,” Zahilay said, overseeing his first emergency as executive, a position he took less than a month ago.  At 11:51am, King County issued a “GO NOW” evacuation notice for residents and businesses in the Orillia area in Tukwila, Renton, and Kent. The Desimone Levee on the Green River had failed, cutting a “v” shape into the structure and triggering a flash flood warning. The King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks had been monitoring the levee because it had shown signs of weakness after a week of historic rain. When the levee broke, crews were already on site doing repairs. It was the first levee in the county to fail, but others have shown signs of stress. John Taylor, the director of the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, said they worried the damage would be more dramatic, and was relieved when he saw the small cave in. He expects crews to finish temporary repairs on the levee in a matter of hours. They’ll keep monitoring the situation to make sure those repairs hold.  “The thing that we want folks to understand is it's not typical to have these levees have this much water behind them for this long,” Taylor said, “and so they're getting saturated, and they're starting to show the effects of that, which is why we're paying close attention to them.” Initial reports indicated around 46,000 people were at risk. Later, that number was updated to 6,000 people as the extent of the problem became clearer. The situation hasn’t caused any injuries thus far, but is still developing.  The breach came after a week of record rainfall and flooding. Just today, Western Washington was hit with a Pineapple Express, a tropical flavor of atmospheric river. This week could bring high winds and another 5 to 10 inches of rain, raising river water levels and straining already over-taxed infrastructure. National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists are monitoring the storms and advising local agencies on how to proceed, said Reed Wolcott, a warning coordination meteorologist with the NWS, at the press conference. Wolcott stressed the levee failure was “one small event within a larger disaster that is still unfolding across the Pacific Northwest.” High winds and wet soil could lead to tree falls. Rivers are straining levees elsewhere in the region. People should keep paying attention to possible emergency alerts and evacuation orders, officials say. “As rain returns and water levels continue to rise and change in unpredictable ways, the most important action that residents can take is to please listen to experts, listen to responders and listen to law enforcement,” Zahilay emphasized.  “If you are advised to leave your workplace or your home, please follow the advice and evacuate to a safe location,” Zahilay said. Don’t drive on closed roads, don’t take unnecessary risks. Up to date information on the breach and the evacuation order can be found on KCEmergency.com.  ...read more read less