11/7/08 Flooding & Administration Changes

Flooding and Administration Changes. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer says - earlier this year, President Bush charged members of his administration to commence the most comprehensive effort ever in transition preparation to ensure the President-elect has complete cooperation from the current Administration for a smooth, seamless transfer of authority. SCHAFER: We've got a transition team in place. The team is comprised of both political appointees and career folks. We also have two sub-teams more into developing the information, the briefing books. We're putting together the profiles of the mission areas that includes the specific mission, details, regulations and importantly what we're going to be facing in the next 90 days. What things we're going to have to pay attention to immediately upon a new administration coming in so we'll get that 90 day profile in place. Water is becoming a problem for people in parts of Washington. Snow and rain could be causing flooding. On both sides of the Cascades wind and snow were causing problems as well as at Sea-Tac airport. Seattle Public Utilities has activated its Urban Flood Response Plan. They are staging extra drainage crews throughout the city, deploying storm observers to at-risk areas and doubling staff at its Operations Response Center. If you plan to drive over mountain passes, be prepared for snow sleet or freezing rain. Now here's today's Washington Grange Report. (GRANGE) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.