An excerpt from Repairing devastated lives. Writing and cover photo by Rebecca.
What used to be Lynette Zofchak's belongings, are now a sopping mess outside her Marine Drive suite. A stereo, speakers, camera, and television were thrown on top of once-fluffy towels and once-crisp bed sheets, all of which sat under five feet of grimy water after Tuesday morning's flood.
Zofchak and some of her friends spent tiring hours gently going through her drenched home, and trudged back and forth along a mud-ridden garden path to load a truck with things that made it through the six-hour squall that pounded White Rock, British Columbia with almost 70 millimetres of rain.
It was a frantic morning for residents and business owners trying to save their homes and stores from an incredible deluge. And for Zofchak, it was all the more surreal since she had moved into her beach suite just last Tuesday. She still had unpacked cardboard boxes sitting on the living room floor, but thankfully, children's graduation photos and others were out of harm's way.
"I had a box of negatives on top of the closet," Zofchak said, standing on her patio in mud-covered flip-flops. "Everything was under four to five feet of water. It's devastating beyond belief..."