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House Agriculture panel hears how December floods devastated farms, urges funding for ag relief
Summary
State and local emergency managers, the Washington State Department of Agriculture and dairy industry representatives told the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee that December 2025 atmospheric rivers flooded rivers and low-lying farmland across Western Washington, causing infrastructure and crop losses, constraining feed supplies and highlighting gaps in federal aid for small farms.
On Feb. 12 the Washington House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee held a work session to examine how the December 2025 atmospheric‑river events affected farms and food production across the state.
The session opened with a statewide overview from Robert Ezell, director of the Emergency Management Division at the Washington Military Department, who said the storms "dropped between 20 and 40 inches of rain, which was between 3 and 6 times the normal rainfall" for the period and led to 33 flooded rivers, including record stages on the Skagit, Snohomish and Cedar. Ezell reported about 4,000 homes were affected (440 with major damage or destroyed), one fatality, roughly 380 successful rescues and about 1,000 assisted evacuations. He said preliminary damage assessments identify approximately $180,000,000 in qualifying damages that could be eligible for FEMA public‑assistance reimbursement.
Why it matters: witnesses told the committee that farms often sit in floodplains and absorbed much of the floodwater, producing losses that may not be…
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