Flooding won’t dampen Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Evacuations driven by flood risk cost retailers and other businesses in the Skagit Valley tens of thousands of dollars, but the damage to one iconic product from the region appears to be minimal.

“There might be a couple spots in one field or two that were a little lower that had some water, and tulips definitely don't like water, but for the majority, none of the fields were impacted,” said Kristen Keltz, CEO of the Skagit Tourism Bureau. “We expect hopefully a normal year and beautiful fields as we have every year.”

RELATED: Flooding in WA: Skagit County's 40-year-old flood maps and a dog kennel evacuation

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival bills itself as the largest event of its kind in North America. Hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to the Skagit Valley’s candy-colored tulip fields each spring, bringing millions in revenue with them.

The tulips for next year’s event were already in the ground as the Skagit River rose to record heights in mid-December, adding to anxiety that the flooding would breach levies and floodwalls.

To everyone’s relief, “the dyke did its job and held the water back and the fields and tulips are doing just fine,” Keltz said. “We'll keep our fingers crossed that we don't have another flooding incident, and we'll move forward, as planned, with our spring tulip festival.”

RELATED: Flooding is a familiar foe on the Lummi Reservation

Not all Skagit Valley businesses remained unscathed, however. Evacuation orders led to lost revenue for restaurants and retailers during the crucial holiday shopping season.

The tourism bureau estimates one restaurant lost $50,000 over two days due to evacuation orders. Workers also lost wages during the closures.

“ I think a lot of them are just very thankful that they did not lose their property and did not have any damage,” Keltz said. “They are going to have to find ways to make this loss up somehow, and that's why as the tourism bureau, we're just encouraging people that Skagit Valley is open for business and we don't want folks to be concerned about coming up.”