BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Gov. Bob Ferguson was in Whatcom County on Wednesday to visit communities that were impacted by last week’s historic flooding.

The governor surveyed the damage across Sumas, Nooksack and Everson before meeting with local leaders and first responders.

He emphasized the need to establish more safeguards like Mount Vernon’s flood wall to minimize the impact of future flood events.

“In communities I visited today, we need more infrastructure,” Ferguson said. “There’s a cost to that and there’s lots of communities that need that all across the state, so our job as elected officials and tribal leaders is to prioritize resources to make sure we’re meeting that infrastructure need.”

Ferguson acknowledged that the state’s finances are tight but says he expects there will be room to address those needs in the upcoming budget.

“I do think there is a growing sense from talking to legislators just in the last week of a sense of that,” Ferguson said. “Infrastructure needs a significant investment and I feel confident that we’ll see a significant investment this year.”

When it came to the ongoing impacts of the flooding, Ferguson says we’re not out of the woods just yet.

“Every expert I talked to … said these levees withstanding a week-plus of this amount of pressure is a lot for them, and so we have National Guard, we have first responders, we have folks stationed up and down both sides of the state to make sure they’re there in case there’s any kind of a breach, but it is a very, very fluid situation.”

But he praised the support he saw from community members to help those impacted by the flooding.

“The level of cooperation that I see from tribes to governments to organizations like the Red Cross to individuals, neighbors helping neighbors, I mean it’s inspiring, it really is,” Ferguson said.

The governor’s visit came a day after he announced that the state is directing $3.5 million in emergency funds to support residents with relief and recovery.