Flooding covers Washington highways, crews rescue residents
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Rivers were expected to crest either late Wednesday or early Thursday
Emergency crews are mindful of the potential for mudslides
More rain is not forecast over the weekend
(CNN) -- Heavy rains swamped parts of western Washington on Wednesday, with water covering state highways, rivers flooding their banks and residents near the Pacific coast needing rescue crews to help them from their homes.
Flood warnings have been issued on 18 rivers, almost all of them in western Washington.
Rob Harper, spokesman for Washington's emergency management agency, said the area was hit with about two days of steady, heavy rainfall. One area near Mt. Rainier was on track to receive more than eight inches of rain in a 24-hour period, he said.
Harper said flood warnings have been issued on 18 rivers, almost all of them in western Washington.
On Wednesday, water was covering state highways in five western Washington counties, according to the state Department of Transportation's Web site.
Crews were working to clear drains and monitor flood-and-musdlide-prone areas.
The state's emergency management agency had activated an emergency operation center at the Washington National Guard's Camp Murray.
As of 4 p.m. PT Wednesday, officials in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties -- all coastal counties in western Washington -- had called for voluntary evacuations and evacuation shelters had been set up.
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Harper said rivers were expected to crest either late Wednesday or early Thursday. The area may have caught a break when rains eased up Wednesday afternoon.
More rain is not forecast over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
"Hopefully, if we can get past this period of today, maybe things will begin to dry up," Harper said.
Coastal Washington often is hit by heavy flooding in November and December, when weather systems in the Pacific send heavy storms -- sometimes the remnants of typhoons -- into the area.
"Maybe the good news here is that we didn't have snow, so we didn't have a snow melt on top of the rainfall," Harper said.
Emergency crews plan to begin assessing damage from the floods Thursday morning, Harper said. And they'll also be mindful of the potential for mudslides -- which often follow heavy rains in the Pacific northwest.
"There's definitely a potential for that," Harper said. "Soils are really saturated now and they'll be prone to slide."
