These photos, taken on Dec. 3, 2007, show the flooding at Lake Forest Park Towne Centre.

First, this map shows the area in which most of the photos were taken. It shows the
path of Lyon Creek, from where it first enters a culvert (labeled Culvert 1)
just east of the Fire Station, on to a daylighted section just east of the Starbucks.

These photos show Lyon Creek at the entrance to Culvert 1, which is completely
overflowing both its banks (upstream of the fence) and the entrance to Culvert 1 itself.

That overflow at the entrance to Culvert 1 is responsible for this flooding, looking west towards the
Fire Station from the culvert entrance.

The same overflow is the source of this flow, seen from the Fire Station looking east:
The water is flowing away from Lyon Creek, towards Brookside Blvd.

This photograph looks east, toward the Shopping Center from just east of Brookside Blvd.
The Fire Station is just out of the shot on the left. All of this water is coming from
Lyon Creek, upstream of Culvert 1.

There is so much water overflowing from Lyon Creek that it has effectively
joined up with McAleer; this photograph, taken from the front of the North Shore Fire
Station, looks across Brookside Ave. towards McAleer Creek.

Downstream of Culvert 1, which is clearly not big enough to contain today's flow,
we see the output of Culvert 1, looking downstream onto Daylight 1.

This is the same area, Daylight 1, looking upstream. Even though Culvert 1
is not big enough to contain the flow of Lyon Creek, it is clear from this
photo that the second culvert - Culvert 2, underneath where the photo
is taken - is not even big enough to contain the flow out of Culvert 1.

The entrance to Culvert 2 is overflowing, even though the only water entering it is coming from
the output of Culvert 1. This means that Culvert 2 is smaller than Culvert 1. And we saw,
above, that Culvert 1 itself is not big enough to contain today's flow.

These photos show the output of Culvert 2, massively overflowing the banks of the
open Daylight 2 segment.

This looks downstream along the Daylight 2 segment. This artificial stream channel
is clearly inadequate for handling even the output of Culvert 2 - which is much less than
the total volume of today's flow.

Moving downstream, this is the the end of the Daylight 2 segment, looking at the
entrance to the culvert near the Bank of America. The culvert entrance
is underwater; the culvert is just barely keeping up with the flow.

Here is a very telling photograph. This is the entrance to the final culvert at Towne Centre;
this one takes Lyon Creek underneath Bothell Way. It is still capable of handling more
flow; it is not overflowing.

These photos clearly show that Lyon Creek Culverts 1 and 2, where water is directed as it enters Towne Centre, are of insufficient size to handle water volumes like December 3, 2007 flooding. And exacerbating the problem, Culvert 2 is actually smaller in size and capacity than Culvert 1 upstream. To protect the Towne Centre area from future flooding, both culverts need to be replaced with either open stream channels or culverts of adequate size to handle 100-year flow volumes. Also, both of the currently open stream channels - Daylight 1 and Daylight 2 here - need to be enhanced to handle the same flow.

Towne Centre was not the only place where Lyon Creek overflowed. The following photos show houses along 44th Ave. NE; Lyon Creek flows through or near all of these properties. Most of that creek bed is artificial, created when Lyon Creek was diverted in order to build Towne Centre in 1961.

This house is immediately west of the entrance to Culvert 1.

This house is at the corner of 44th Ave. NE and NE 178th Street; Lyon Creek flows through its front yard: