Kent man shares memories of past Green River floods

In the late ‘40s I remember the Green River would break over its bank just south of 259th east of where the Aukeen Court is today. It would head north past the pickle factory, heading north on State Street (now South Central), toward town, flooding Central and Meeker streets.

If a flood was bad, the National Guard would send in the Army duck (amphibious vehicles), like the ones Seafair Pirates ride on, and sand bag the town stores and rescue the stranded residents.

As kids living on Knob Hill (Scenic Hill), our father would have us put on our knee boots, and we would head to town to watch the sand bagging. For kids this was as exciting as playing in the snow, and meant no school.

In the early ‘20s, my mother, Rae Ramsay Reitan, as a child, lived near the corner of Fourth and Harrison streets. She tells of walking to grade school two blocks to the south. She said she looked up and saw the flood waters coming at her down Fourth Avenue, and running for all she was worth back home to her front porch, just ahead of the waters.

In the late 1800s, the Kent Cemetery was located off south Central between Kent and the river bend on 259th but was moved to Knob Hill (Scenic Hill) because of flooding problems.

The road to the cemetery was an extension of 259th east up the side hill to its present location.

Up until 1906 Kent was the core of the White River Valley until in that year the White River farmers blew a log jam east of Auburn, sending the White River toward Puyallup. Until this happened, White and Green rivers shared the same channel through Kent – meaning we had a lot more water passing through, in the days of yore.

In the 1906 flood, two men on horseback drowned: one from Orilla and one from O’Brien – both north Kent areas.

Eric Reitan

Kent