Regional Public Journalism
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

People Find Ways To Help After Landslide

Taylor Winkel
/
Northwest News Network
Scouts in Arlington, Wash., collect donations for neighbors affected by the nearby landslide.

People near the landslide in Snohomish County, Wash., are looking for ways to help.

Randy Agnew of Arlington is helping his grandson in the Boy Scouts run a food drive.

“We just want to go and help," he says. "If I wasn’t so laid up I’d go help out at the site but I’d probably be hindering to everybody there.”

At first, emergency response commanders did ask people to stay away from the slide. But Bob DeYoung of Darrington, the small town on the other side of the landslide, says that wasn’t going to happen.

“The local community is pretty tough," he says. "And they stick together. And we said, ‘well, we’re going in whether you let us or not.’ That was the deal. So once they saw that then they started taking volunteers.”

DeYoung has been in there. Looking for survivors, and finding only victims.

His wife Julie is helping in another way, cooking for hundreds of people who come to the community center for a place to sleep, or just be with each other.

Bob DeYoung calls her the town sweetheart.