Raines takes step back from flood advocacy roles
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Longtime Chehalis River Basin flood advocate Vickie Raines will be stepping back from her role on the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority board after the group’s meeting late last week.
Raines attended her last meeting as a member of the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority Thursday morning as members met for a rare in-person meeting in Chehalis.
Raines is one of the longest-serving participants in a regional effort to address flooding in the Chehalis Basin that began after the 2007 flood. Raines joined the group just a few years later.
Raines has long represented lower Chehalis Basin communities in her roles on both the flood authority board and the Chehalis Basin Board. She served until recently as the chair of both boards. Over the years, she has also held multiple local government positions in the lower Chehalis Basin, including serving as a city council member and mayor of Cosmopolis and now as Grays Harbor County commissioner.
Raines appeared to begin stepping back from many of these rolls at the end of last year. She first stepped down as chair of the flood authority board in November, at the time recalling when she first joined the board in 2011 just three years after it had been established and four years after the disastrous 2007 flood.
Raines announced she would step down from the Chehalis Basin Board not long afterward in mid-January 2026 and announced her resignation from the Grays Harbor Board of County Commissioners a month later in February. Raines’ resignation from her role as a county commissioner took effect on Tuesday, March 31, and she will transition into a new role with Great Rivers Behavioral Health.
“The past 15 years with the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority, as well as the Chehalis Basin Board, I’ve played a small part in seeing over 200 projects come to fruition, millions of dollars spent to protect billions in businesses, property, homes, people, fish and habitat,” Raines said.
Raines noted in her statement that cooperation has been key to the flood and fish work done over the last 15 years. She added she is confident that the members of both the Flood Authority and the Chehalis Basin Board will continue that cooperation as they continue to address flooding in the basin.
