As early as 9 a.m. Wednesday, some Puyallup residents were on the move to avoid rising floodwaters.

At the Riverview RV Park on East Main Street, Harvey Burgee had an inch of water in his trailer and was trying to get to higher ground.

He and 15 to 20 other residents spent the morning moving their homes from one end of the park to the other, where they hoped the Puyallup River’s floodwaters wouldn’t reach.

“We’re lucky because we can move our homes,” Burgee said. “People in Orting, they can’t.”

By evening, Puyallup officials had asked more than 6,000 households to evacuate.

Emergency Management director Merle Frank estimated that amounts to about 12,000 people. He said he expected the Puyallup River to rise to 34.7 feet by 4 a.m. today, 4.7 feet above flood level.

Throughout the day, the city’s corporate lots distributed between 5,000 to 8,000 sandbags to residents looking to protect their homes.

Mark Hoesel, 36, hurriedly loaded up his truck with sandbags just after 4 p.m. to help protect his brother-in-law’s home in downtown Puyallup.

“If we don’t sandbag it in the next few hours, it probably will be 6 inches underwater,” Hoesel said.

Other residents staked out spots where they could watch the floodwaters and see whether it was time to rush home and save their belongings.

At midday, about two dozen people stood on part of the Riverfront Trail to watch the river rise. Nearby parts of the trail were already underwater.

Barbara Gaines, 37, said she was waiting for the water to rise another 2 feet before she and her children would rush home to save their dogs and cat. They planned to move their family photos and electronics to the top floor of their house near River Road and 18th Street Northwest.

“Anything we can get up the stairwell, we will,” she said.

Gaines, who has lived in Puyallup her entire life, said she’d never seen conditions like these.

“This is going to get insane,” she said.

Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058