Sodden homes bring despair in Lynn­wood

LYNNWOOD — The murky water was gone and the power was back, but the break in the weather Tuesday didn’t put an end to Sue and Michael Jones’ heartache.

The couple, who were flooded out of their Lynn­wood apartment, were preparing to spend a second night at an emergency shelter set up at World Harvester Family Church.

“We have no idea what we are going to do,” said Sue Jones, who had surgery for ovarian cancer in November. “We have no clue. Obviously, we cannot return.”

In Lynnwood, water from Scriber Creek rose Monday and displaced more than 20 families in the Willshire Cove and the Oxford Square apartments. Some returned home to soaked apartments Tuesday; others said they weren’t about to sleep in apartments filled with dirty floodwater mixed with sewage.

The couple say they have no car or family or friends they can turn to for help. They said they were forced earlier this year from another apartment complex, which was converted into condos.

Meanwhile, Mila Tanner spent Tuesday with a friend trying to salvage what she could from her Willshire apartment, where she’s lived for a decade. Her couch and love seat were propped up on tables.

“It was traumatic,” said Tanner, as her son Mikea Tanner, 12, tossed out a waterlogged Spider-Man comic book.

A few doors down, John Vela worried about mold as he cranked up the heat and got busy with a vacuum. By 3 p.m., he pulled more than 40 gallons of water from his living room carpet, but the effort hardly showed.

“I’m trying to get as much as I can. I’m tired of sloshing around,” he said.

He planned to stay at the apartment on Tuesday. The night before, Vela crowded into a friend’s apartment with his girlfriend, her two kids and eight cats.

Willshire Cove manager Darlah Lovell said she doesn’t know yet when displaced residents would be able to return. At the nearby Oxford Square Apartments, maintenance supervisor Philip Brown pumped hundreds of gallons of water from one of seven flooded units. On Sunday, two pumps — each capable of draining a backyard pool in an hour — worked all night in the rain to no avail.

“It came so fast it was ridiculous,” Brown said. “With the two of them, there was still no way to keep up. The storm drains were bubbling up and there was just no place for the water to go.”