Severe flooding damages homes of families in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood
Severe flooding damage to homes of families in Seattle
Picking up and drying off. That is what many families are doing after severe winter weather brought flooding. FOX 13’s Alejandra Guzman is in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood – speaking with a family who says they have lost everything.
SEATTLE – The streets of South Park neighborhood now filled with family’s personal belongings after the king tides rose waist deep for some.
The area of 8th Ave and Chicago Street hit the hardest impacting both homeowners and businesses.
More than 24 hours later, many are still cleaning up trying to dry the few things they have left.
Reasmey Choun, 27, is one of several hurting.
She, her mom, two children under 13 and their two pets a cat and dog are now scrambling to clean hopefully return to their home of 12 years.
“I know material things don’t matter but this is all I had,” Choun said as she peeked inside the dumpster with her dog Mochi in hand.
Her mother cleaning inside, ashamed of the devastation.
Choun has been stepping up and translating for others in the community who also live in duplexes, the majority of them are Cambodian.
“I have a lot of people that are relying on me on my end,” Choun said for remaining strong during the trying times.
She woke up to rushing waters flooding their home, which is on the basement level.
“It was very high, it was all laid to the doorknob,” Choun said. “All the water that was coming in was coming in two times deeper.”
They only escaped the floodwaters through the windows and the clothes on their backs, robes.
24 hours later—they’re able to enter their home and see the aftermath.
“Everything was floating everything was inside the water, and the water was pretty deep,” Choun said.
They lost everything they’ve work for in the last 12 years, their couches are standing by to be thrown out but TV, drones, vacuums, laptops are all ruined.
Most importantly personal documents like birth certificates and priceless memories like family photos all washed away.
“Just throwing them away kind of really sucks I can always replace them but still having to go through this damage, just dealing with it was just very overwhelming,” Choun said.
A similar situation others are dealing with as trash bags and furniture line the streets in the neighborhood after Seattle PUD, the Red Cross and other community groups have come out to help with the cleanup.
Still the recovery for several families in these home is a long ways away.
“Just taking it day by day right now, this is a lot that we lost”
Residents across the street from the Choun’s and nearby streets say the water in their garages rose hip deep and fear it’s not yet over.
They’ve prepared sandbags, in case things change quickly.
Right now the main items needed to help families get back on their feet is food, clothes and blankets. The family has set up a GoFundMe.