Let me start by saying I do not work for King County.

The idea for this script originally came during the flooding Washington State endured in late 2008 and early 2009 of this past year. I made a rough draft, wrote some of the code and documented how I thought it would work. It didn't make much sense to activate it last January because, well, we all knew there was flooding all over the place and the last thing I would want to see is a Twitter feed telling me something I already knew.

So with the rain now beginning in earnest, winter around the corner and flood preparation underway for the Green River Valley, now seemed like a good time to launch the Twitter account, @KingRivers.

The Twitter bot monitors information from USGS and NOAA on river water levels in King County, Washington. It will begin tweeting hourly updates when water levels reach the alert thresholds set for the individual river gages.

A sample tweet is shown below,

Green River near Auburn: At 2009-10-14 21:45 river height was 53.41 ft. http://bit.ly/iYtjl

The bit.ly address provided at the end of the alert is a direct link back to more detailed river flooding information on King County's Flood Warning System website. King County's individual river pages provide USGS gage data, a map, alert phases, and recent high flows.

The river gages I am currently monitoring with this script are:

• Green River near Auburn
• Skykomish River near Gold Bar
• Tolt River near Carnation
• Cedar River near Landsburg
• Cedar River at Renton
• White River above Boise Creek at Buckley
• Issaquah Creek near Issaquah
• Snoqualmie River near Snoqualmie
• Snoqualmie River near Carnation

In most cases I am trying to display the river height in feet rather than flow in cubic feet per second (c.f.s) because I think people can visualize that easier. Where height information is not available I have fallen back to displaying a river flow measurement.

And now, a quick disclaimer. In no event will I be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits or property arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this service. Every effort is made to keep the service up and running smoothly. However, I take no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the service being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond my control.

If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to post them here or contact me on Twitter at @platoscave or @KingRivers.