My first stop last Wednesday was the Division Street Bridge in Mount Vernon. I was blown away by the sheer speed at which the Skagit River was flowing. By Friday, Charlotte and I were walking near Gages Slough in Burlington when we came across an ad hoc rescue operation, so we went to see what was happening.

The slough had flooded the yard at Angela Hansen's house and filled the basement apartment where her mother lived. They hadn't had time to free their chickens before evacuating the night before. Hansen's brother Eric Gustin paddled out to the coop in a kayak, armed with a neighbor's sawzall, and cut the chickens free.

Discovering that all the chickens had survived was a true moment of joy on an otherwise horrific day for those living in the house, and I was glad we could be there to capture the story.