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Rain eased overnight in Whatcom County as a drenching atmospheric river shifted north into British Columbia, allowing the Nooksack River to crest below flood stage from Everson to the river mouth at Lummi Nation. Residents and public officials had been watching the river in those and other flood-stricken communities as persistent rain from the last in a series of atmospheric river storms pushed the raging river toward critical levels for what would have been been the third time in two weeks. “The river crested overnight well below flood stage,” Everson Mayor John Perry said at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1.

“This flood event is over,” Perry said on Facebook, where he has been keeping the town’s 2,700 residents informed since since the river surged over its banks Nov. 14.

Downstream in Ferndale, Mayor Greg Hansen told The Bellingham Herald, “We’re more or less seeing the same” as in Everson.

“The crests were markedly lower than they were on the 15th” when floodwaters first reached Ferndale. “Now it’s time to give (the levee) a close inspection.” A flood watch remained in effect for Ferndale until 7 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, as rainfall fell just short of a daily record in Bellingham on Tuesday, Nov. 30, where more than an inch was recorded by 6 p.m.