'Christmas will still be merry -- it will'
PE ELL, Wash. -- There's no doubt the cleanup from the floods will take months. And for people in towns like Pe Ell that were hit hardest, it means these next few days leading up to Christmas will certainly be difficult...
But one family is keeping it all in perspective.
"Christmas will still be merry, it will," said flood victim Roben McAlister.
There are still signs of Christmas amidst the flood damage in the McAlister home.
"My house was pretty much decorated except for a Christmas tree, when the flood hit, so...," she said. "If you dwell on the negatives, and all the work we have yet to do, it would make it much harder to do."
Two weeks after the storm, and 7 days before Christmas, there's still plenty of standing water on the ground. The main road into the neighborhood is washed out, but the McAlisters keep their focus on what's important.
"My family's all safe, they're all healthy... and we have a roof over our head," she said. "It might not be our home, but we have a roof over our head that was provided to us... you know, even through all of this, we're blessed."
They think about all the volunteers who helped them, and they hold on to the remarkable stories of survival.
"The water was up to my chest," Mike McAlister said. "So it would have been way over my kid's head... and it was moving pretty good, it had good rapids going."
The raft that Mike used to save his kids still sits in front of his house as a reminder of the storm they survived.
"Things, we can replace them in time," Roben McAlister said. "We may not be able to go out and afford everything we had, but in time it will come."
This Christmas isn't about the things they don't have. It's about celebrating the things, they do have, and starting over.
The McAlisters say if you want to help, the best thing you can do is donate to charities like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, or United Way.
But one family is keeping it all in perspective.
"Christmas will still be merry, it will," said flood victim Roben McAlister.
There are still signs of Christmas amidst the flood damage in the McAlister home.
"My house was pretty much decorated except for a Christmas tree, when the flood hit, so...," she said. "If you dwell on the negatives, and all the work we have yet to do, it would make it much harder to do."
Two weeks after the storm, and 7 days before Christmas, there's still plenty of standing water on the ground. The main road into the neighborhood is washed out, but the McAlisters keep their focus on what's important.
"My family's all safe, they're all healthy... and we have a roof over our head," she said. "It might not be our home, but we have a roof over our head that was provided to us... you know, even through all of this, we're blessed."
They think about all the volunteers who helped them, and they hold on to the remarkable stories of survival.
"The water was up to my chest," Mike McAlister said. "So it would have been way over my kid's head... and it was moving pretty good, it had good rapids going."
The raft that Mike used to save his kids still sits in front of his house as a reminder of the storm they survived.
"Things, we can replace them in time," Roben McAlister said. "We may not be able to go out and afford everything we had, but in time it will come."
This Christmas isn't about the things they don't have. It's about celebrating the things, they do have, and starting over.
The McAlisters say if you want to help, the best thing you can do is donate to charities like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, or United Way.