One of the locations that I have been shooting for the past decade is the South Park neighborhood in SW Seattle. Part of the reason for photo documenting this neighborhood is that I actually lived in the area for a short time before starting school. Also, it has been a neighborhood in transition for decades; it’s part residential, part light manufacturing and part indigenous heritage. This makes for an interesting mix.

This past winter we had both a very high tide and exceptional rainfall event. The result was that the Duwamish River overflowed its bank by two feet, which caused residential flooding. The city came in with a Laundry Trailer, which is still there, months later. Also, not pictured, is all of the POD units the city brought in for residents to store their non-flooded items. Basements were severely flooded in those houses closest to the river. The sandbags you see ( orange and green) were used to build a three foot wall, unfortunately this was done after the flooding event. The city has left most of the sandbags in place. I’m not sure what the overall plan is, going forward. In all of my years of spending time in this neighborhood I have never seen flood mitigation done on this scale. ( just as an aside- The Duwamish River was the very first EPA Superfund Site. Most of the offending industries have left this area, moving away from the river. However, after 50+ years, it is safe to say the federal government is slow-walking the cleanup. It would take a monumental dredging operation to clean up all of the heavy metals and toxins that have long settled on the river bottom).

I’ve been sitting on these photos and more for months as I just wasn’t sure how to present the after effects of an unusual flood event.