Nearly three months after devastating flooding tore through Western Washington, volunteers in Whatcom County are stepping up to help people rebuild their damaged homes. But the money from donations is about to run dry, and lingering uncertainty over federal funding means many people are still displaced.
As the sun set over the North Cascades on a recent Thursday, Kyle Christensen stood outside a church in Sumas. It's a small town next to the Canadian border that was hit hard by the December floods. Christensen used to be the mayor. He’s now the director of the Whatcom Long Term Recovery Group, which was created after flooding in 2021 to fill service gaps and help people rebuild their homes.
“We were still helping people from the 2021 flood when the December flood happened,” Christensen said.
The Sumas Advent Christian Church has served as a meeting point for families seeking aid and for volunteers helping people rebuild their homes. Christensen’s group has a “recovery trailer” parked outside. It has saws, power cords, a floor-cutting machine, gloves, safety suits, screws, nails, ladders and other things you’d need to fix a flooded house.
At first glance, things look normal in Sumas. The recovery group was able to remove most of the external debris in the first few weeks after the floods. But many homes still have serious damage on the inside.
“Because we did such a good job cleaning up, a lot of people don’t realize how many people still aren’t in their homes,” Christensen said.
More than a thousand volunteers — a mix of locals and people from out of town — have stepped up over the past few months to help people repair their homes, Christensen said. Some have prior construction experience, while others are learning as they go.
“We have a real strong community up here,” he said. “It was a huge blessing and an encouragement to have that many volunteers.”
The group has made progress, but according to Christensen several hundred people in the area are still displaced, staying with family or in trailers or hotels. Others are still living in damaged homes with mold, mildew and other problems.
“A lot of these aren’t safe, sanitary and secure homes,” he said. “They just don’t have any other option.”
Full recovery could take years. Christensen isn’t worried about a lack of volunteers. But money is a problem. The recovery group received a small sum from the state government, but they have mostly relied on donations from individuals, and that money is set to run out at the end of February.
“Volunteers aren’t going to be able to do anything if we don’t have the fundraising to buy the materials,” Christensen said.
In January, Gov. Bob Ferguson asked President Donald Trump for $21.3 million in federal aid to help repair homes across the state. He’s still waiting for a reply.
“Until we know what dollars we have coming in from those sources, and what type of funding that is, we really don’t know how long it’s going to take,” said John Perry, director of community and advocacy with the Whatcom Recovery group.
Perry is also the mayor of Everson, a small town about 15 minutes south of Sumas. He’s working at the police station; City Hall took on eight inches of water during the flood and is still being repaired.
“Myself and my public works director stayed up all night in City Hall and we were running pumps trying to keep the water out, but it didn’t work,” Perry said.
Perry estimates that around 70% of people in the area had flood insurance — an increase over the 2021 floods, when he estimates that about 50% were insured. But the deductibles are high, and will likely rise over the next year.
In addition to repairs, the Whatcom Recovery Group has also helped people with food, money for rental and hotel stays, clothing donations, furniture replacement and more. For many, the emotional recovery can be just as challenging as the physical repairs, Perry said: After multiple floods over several short years, some people feel they have no real options for relief or solutions.
That’s why it’s important to rebuild with a focus on prevention, Perry said. It’s not a question of if the next flood will come, but when.
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