Washed out: The great White River flood of 1906

The phrase ‘storm of the century’ is an overused term that gets bandied about during many storms of unusual intensity.

It’s natural to consider the big storm that happens to the current generation as the granddaddy of them all. Some call it chronological snobbery — the arrogant belief that what happens to this generation is more important than what’s happened in the past.

The Great White River flood of November 1906 really was the storm of the century. It resulted in catastrophic flooding that forever changed the course of a mighty river and altered the drainage patterns of the central Puget Sound region between Seattle and Tacoma. The long valley stretching from Renton to Puyallup would never be the same.

During the first two weeks of November 1906, more than six inches of rain fell in