Aberdeen and Hoquiam residents continued to recuperate on Tuesday after damage from flooding and mudslides due to heavy rain on Sunday night and Monday morning.
Although standing water was receding, streets were still flooded in Hoquiam on Tuesday morning. Karla Hilton was clearing her sidewalk of mud that fell from Beacon Hill during Monday’s mudslide onto Queets Avenue. Hilton’s backyard turned into a pool of mud and debris and her garden shed was pushed off of its foundation.
Hilton doesn’t have any heat and has been showering at the YMCA. On Monday night she stayed with her cousin’s son.
At 3:30 a.m. on Monday morning Hilton and her two sons, 18 and 22, woke up to the sound of chunks of Beacon Hill coming down and decided to leave.
Aside from not having power, the inside of Hilton’s house did not sustain severe damage.
“I’m trying to look at the bright side. It made my backyard bigger,” Hilton said with a laugh. “God was looking out for us.”
Next door, Kathryn Erickson was moving boxes of personal belongings out of her house and looking for another place to live. Erickson rents the house she lives in with her 11-year-old daughter. Her backdoor was smashed in with brush that came down from Beacon Hill and she plans to live with her parents until she can find another place to live.
Erickson said she could hear the land shifting against her house early on Monday morning and left around 5 a.m.
“I think I’m still in shock. I’m just nervous,” said Erickson.
Kaylee, Erickson’s daughter, lost her cat during the catastrophe and is devastated, said Kathryn.
Because the backdoor of the house is broken, Erickson has no way to get down to her basement, which is where she stored a stove, refrigerator and bikes. She assumes everything is covered with mud and water.
Erickson was taking what she could from the home to stay with her parents until she finds another place to live.
“We’re surviving,” she said.
At Immanuel Baptist Church in Hoquiam, a Red Cross shelter was set up on Monday for residents affected by the storms. Shelter supervisor Tracy Sheehy said about a half dozen people from Hoquiam and Aberdeen came to the church on Monday night, where meals were served and cots were set up so residents could sleep.
Sheehy said the shelter will stay open as long as there is a need for it.
“If they can’t get into their home, they’ve gotta come some place. That is why we set these up,” said Sheehy.
Robecca Hansen was drinking a cup of coffee on Tuesday morning at the shelter. Hansen was displaced from her Hoquiam apartment building on Sumner Avenue and came to Immanuel Baptist on Monday night with clothes and necessary medications. Flooding in her building caused the majority of her personal items to be ruined.
“The only thing I didn’t lose were my cats,” said Hansen.
Hansen didn’t know how long she would need to stay at the shelter on Tuesday. She said she will most likely be able to move back into her apartment after the water damage is taken care of by the landlord.
Further east, flooding around Olympic Stadium forced vehicles to slowly tread through intersections near Cherry Street. Hoquiam High School senior Kyle Standstipher was one of a number of volunteers opening up manholes to help with standing water.
“This is the place we love. Our community is important to us. The more time we have out of school, the more time we have to help the city out,” he said.
At Pacific Care Center, local volunteers and workers from Restorx DKI, based in Auburn, did their best to clear the nursing home out after torrential rain on Sunday night and Monday morning filled the halls and resident rooms with water. Administrator Aaron Dunyon said all 68 residents were safely transported to dry facilities after the building was vacated at 5 a.m. on Monday morning.
“We had 18 inches of water throughout the whole building,” he said. “We’ve done everything according to the residents’ needs and everyone is healthy.”
Dunyon said there is no timeline for when the nursing home will be up and running again. For the time being, residents are being housed at Channelpoint Village in Hoquiam, Grays Harbor Health and Rehab in Aberdeen and facilities in Shelton and Montesano.
Hoquiam and Aberdeen High School volunteers wheeled medical equipment and other supplies from the building while workers took down door casings and squeegeed water out of the building.
“They’ve been wonderful,” said Suzanne Dehnert of the volunteers.
Help was given to those who needed it on Tuesday. Marion Gillham, who lives next to the Pacific Care Center, saw her house suffer severe water damage during the flood, but expressed how grateful she was for the assistance she received from those in her neighborhood.
“We have very good neighbors around here. I wish everybody was as lucky as we are,” she said.
Anne Marie Babineau also got some help from her friends and family as she cleaned up her downtown Aberdeen restaurant, Anne Marie’s. Babineau said she has not had hot water since the storm and is closed until further notice. A glass display case in the front of the building was also compromised.
Babineau said there was at least two feet of standing water in the restaurant. She has been in business for almost 17 years and said she’s never seen flooding this bad.
“It’s not the first (time), but it’s the worst,” she said. “Water is something we can’t control, we have no say over it.”
Friends, family and coworkers were gathered inside the restaurant on Tuesday, boiling water and trying to dry the carpets.
“I’m really pretty fortunate. This is my home,” said Babineau.
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