The National Weather Service said it had issued a flash flood warning ‌after a failure at the Desimone Levee in Tukwila along the Green River, about five miles south of downtown Seattle. The service said that waters were likely heading toward Interstate 405, ⁠a major roadway, and ‌that an evacuation notice was in effect for a large chunk of King County where about ‍46,000 people live, Reuters reported.

“Leave immediately if you are in this area,” said a social media note from the service.

“Conditions are dangerous and access routes ​may be lost at any time,” the NWS wrote.

The Washington ‌National Guard said that it was sending Guard members to King County. The Guard has already been helping flood-impacted residents in the western part of the state over the weekend.

Authorities have been concerned about levee breaches for days around Washington ⁠state, as torrential downpours hit a ​wide swath of the Pacific Northwest.

The rains were spawned by a string of atmospheric river storms, vast airborne currents of dense moisture siphoned ‍from the ocean, ⁠that swept inland over the Pacific Northwest, including parts of northern Idaho and western Montana, with upward of ⁠20 inches of rain falling in some areas over the course of ‌a week.

MA?PR