A real flood.

This week the Cowlitz River rose and completely flooded the vacation home of two close friends of our family. In the span of a weekend, the water rose to the height of their chimney and they lost everything. By Monday, the river washed over the highways into the small town of Packwood, where my mother and her boyfriend also own a home, and residents could only enter or leave by helicopter. Our friend’s father built their home and they have lost not just a home but over 50 years of memories. This weekend they will try to find a way back to their condemned garage to recover the last remnants.
Talking to my Mom, though, we had to acknowledge this was no Katrina. These are our second homes, after all, our little big cabins in the little ski town next to the mountain. While our friends went to see what was left they stood in a grocery store next to people who had truly lost everything; cars, homes, land. Pretty humbling.
Crazy.