Outside agencies helping South Park community pick up the pieces after flooding

SEATTLE — It’s been more than 10 days since flood waters devastated Seattle’s South Park community.

According the Team Rubicon, a group that specializes in disaster response, the city of Seattle called them several days ago to help out with the clean up and recovery process in South Park. Don Beeson with the group says at least 30 homes were impacted by the recent floods.

“They have seen flooding down here before and this was the second time in about 48 years (they) had seen it as this bad,” Beeson said.

Beeson said they have at least 15 volunteers on the ground helping with the clean up through Jan. 10. He said over 100 people in the Seattle area signed up to help, and the main goal right now is to help out everyone they can.

“If and when that happens, to play our part and try to make sure that these communities are moving toward their own recovery as quick as possible,” Beeson said.

Ever since the flood waters swept through one neighborhood, people continue to pick up the pieces one at a time.

“It’s heartbreaking. It’s debilitating. You have a lot of sleepless nights,” said Geno Rosso, who owns property that was damaged. “You just … don’t know where we are at.”

Rosso said the flood waters did more than just damage his home — they also damaged thousands of dollars worth of paintings and ruined his wedding photos.

“My wedding photos are in that cabinet right there,” Rosso said.

“My wife passed away. So, my son doesn’t have any photos of my mom, or his mom. My wife,” Rosso said.

Rosso said there are some things you can’t put a price on.

“What kind of price do you put on family heirlooms and pictures of your deceased wife? What kind of price tag? There is no price tag,” Rosso said.

But he isn’t the only one. Daniel Gamet and his family lost nearly everything in their basement because of the flood waters. And because of the extent of the contamination, they have to throw a lot of stuff out.

“Our dressers. A lot of photos. All of our clothes,” Gamet said. “My grandbabies’ new bed, it’s gotta go. All of the stuff you see here, it’s all going.” Gamet said.

But his daughter, Samantha Stanley, says while they lost a lot of important things, they were able to save some precious items.

“Because my nephew who was murdered a couple of years ago, we had his ashes in a heart and it was in our room. So I was like, ‘Dad, we need to get that out!’” Stanley said.

Gamet says right now, all they can do is take this day-by-day.

“Day-by-day is all that we can do right now. And we are not sure what we are going to do,” Gamet said.

But he hopes that the city can do something to help prevent this from happening again.

“Shouldn’t you guys have built a sea wall or have the barges go out? At least we would have a little fighting chance,” Gamet said.

He and his family aren’t sure they can handle any more flooding like this. A GoFundMe account has been set up to help them recover.

If you have a home in South Park that was damaged by flood waters and need assistance, click here to visit Team Rubicon’s website.

For American Red Cross, click here.

VIDEO: Flood recovery in South Park continues

©2023 Cox Media Group