Photographer from the area Michael Penn was paddling back from a camping excursion with his family on Sunday, when they came across a sand field located just from Douglas Island, near where the Mendenhall River flows into the ocean.
Style: span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”I was looking down into the water and saw this Ziploc bag floating around with pictures. Perhaps, I don’t know there were between 60 to 80 images inside,” Penn said. “I am aware of how precious these images are. .”
They’d been outside of mobile service over the past couple of days. When they looked up the phones on Monday, they found out about the flood caused by glacial eruptions and the destruction of homes by the floods.
The bag contained “FAMILY” printed on it using a marker. The seal was broken and the photos were infected with saltwater. The good news is that Penn owns a printing dryer from his days of darkroom photography.
He brought the pictures to his home, cleaned them off and dried them. He claims they’re unharmed. He posted pictures on Instagram and hoped to locate the owners.
A post shared by Michael Penn (@michaelpennphotography)
That day before, Leticia McRae was walking on the tideline of the North Douglas beach, several miles away from where the houses fell. She’s been raking up garbage in Juneau for around a decade. She also manages a Facebook group for community members that she uses to share her trash picks.
Its style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”There was a tree along the tideline, and sort of up against it was this box” she told me on Monday. “And I took it out and saw the latch, which had no lock, and any lock was shut. .”
When she ripped open the wooden box and looked inside, she discovered an old metal image and jewelry which included what appeared to be an engagement ring with a inscription on the back. She returned it to her to her home, cleaned it and rinsing it off and then posted an image on Facebook seeking help to locate the owner.
In a matter of hours, a post on Facebook had connected her to someone who lost their home to the flood. The box was returned to the person who had it that night.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”That box sank through the turbulent river, and it swam through the channel, and finally ended on a beach not yet closed,” McRae said. “It was supposed to be returned towards the families .”
The next day, Penn was back in North Douglas with his wife and son, to continue the clean-up. Penn said that they stuffed several bags.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Imagine a home that’s been smashed up and thrown out. We saw roof material as well as ceiling trusses and damaged furniture and pieces of plastic” He stated. “There’s all kinds of insulation .”
The reports of furniture and other building materials are appearing along the waters around Juneau. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has requested Juneau residents to provide information about all fuel heaters or tanks of heating oil that might have been washed off or washed away along the beach.
The cleanup process will take time. On Monday, McRae was back out at the beach in search of more garbage to clean up or treasures to share with.
It’s a span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Sometimes we believe that it’s all gone, but it’s not,” she explained. “Sometimes the universe helps us find things that bring us back. you. .”
Information: Michael Penn works for Gavel Alaska at KTOO’s during the session of the legislature.
