[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 208 (Wednesday, December 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S8631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I have come to the floor tonight to talk 
about a few issues. Literally, I thought I was going to come and talk 
about healthcare and the need for us to come together to help reduce 
healthcare costs and to continue to fight to make sure Americans are 
covered because covering them helps reduce all our costs when you have 
the reduction of uncompensated care. But I also wanted to mention a 
very important safety issue on aviation.
  But what I need to say now is really to the State of Washington and 
to our National Weather Service people. I just got off the phone from 
our National Weather Service Director for the Pacific Northwest, who 
was telling me about the extremely dangerous events that are now taking 
place in the Northwest, with flooding, that we are going to see 
catastrophic events in at least a couple of our counties, and certainly 
a lot of damage in the better part of Puget Sound.
  So it is very important that the public understand that these rivers, 
particularly in Snohomish and Skagit Counties, are going to reach 
catastrophic levels, literally 4 to 5 feet above the historic mark of 
these rivers. So this weather event of what is called an atmospheric 
river, bringing about this much precipitation into our region is going 
to cause the need for evacuations.
  Do not tarry in the evacuation. If evacuations are requested, please 
comply. These are very drastic situations, and we need the public to 
understand that. So I am sure you are going to hear a lot more from 
your local forecasters, your county executives, your emergency response 
teams, but just know that we are under an unbelievable weather event, 
and we need to have the public's cooperation.

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