Meanwhile, Skagit County officials evacuated people from low-lying areas near the river -- including portions of West Mount Vernon, the Riverbend area and Fir Island, near Conway -- ahead of the coming flood crest.

Race Against Time Along Skagit River

Officials asked businesses in Mount Vernon, Burlington and Sedro Woolley to close early to give workers time to get home in daylight hours.

HOW TO HELP People wanting to help fill and stack sandbags in Mount Vernon can report to the fire house in Mount Vernon.

The National Weather Service says the river would hit ten feet above flood stage Tuesday at 9 p.m.

Volunteers assembled to sandbag around the downtown courthouse and the revetments that protect against high water on the Skagit, which threatens to flood nearly every winter but also waters some of the lushest farmland in the state. The Skagit River's low-lying delta, home to truck farms, dairies and tulip growers, is protected by an extensive series of dikes.

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Seattle recorded a record day of rainfall Monday, and rising water forced the evacuation of dozens of homes in northwestern Washington. The rain eased off considerably Tuesday morning, though roads and hillsides were still soaked.

An Army helicopter from Fort Lewis was dispatched late Monday night to rescue a man who was stranded at a house near Darrington in Snohomish County but turned back because of foul weather. The man was rescued by boat about 4 a.m. Tuesday, said Mark Clemens, a spokesman at the state Emergency Operations Center.

A boat also was deployed to reach a family at a house by the south fork of the Stillaguamish River near Granite Falls.

Drivers Brave High Water Near Skok

U.S. 2 was closed through the Cascades after a rockslide hit a car Monday night just west of Stevens Pass, said Robert Smith, a State Patrol communications officer. No one was injured but car-sized boulders blocked the westbound lanes and part of the eastbound lanes.

One lane of the highway remained closed Tuesday.

The rainfall reading at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was a calendar-day record with 4.86 inches by 11 p.m., well over the old mark of 3.41 inches on Nov. 20, 1959, the Weather Service said. Rainfall records at the site date to 1931.

Eastside Streets Flooded

By 5 p.m. Monday, when rain began tapering off in most areas, 24-hour totals included 6.52 inches for Bremerton, 5.93 inches for Shelton and 4.53 inches for Hoquiam, the Weather Service said.

In 1990, 20 rivers flooded in Western Washington, displacing thousands of people and doing $160 million in damage.

Several roads remained closed because of flood damage and slides from last week's storm.

Washington 20, the North Cascades Highway, was closed after slides deposited "rocks as big as Volkswagens" and debris 10 to 15 feet deep, state Transportation Department spokeswoman Jamie Holter said. The road is closed annually for the winter, but this was the earliest closure on record.

Washington 112, the only paved road to the Makah Indian Reservation at the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula, was severed by a sinkhole 50 feet deep and 142 feet long just east of the reservation. Repairs were expected to cost $90,000 to $100,000.

A contractor was on site Monday. Repairs were expected to take three or four days.

Arrangements were made for an emergency detour over a one-lane logging road, and there were deliveries of groceries, gasoline and mail on Monday, tribal Chairman Nathan Tyler said.