Flood Relief - Curtis, WA

In February 2008, engineering students Chad Wiggins and Meghan Reha joined SU staff members Steve Szablya, Cal Ihlers, Fred Jiencke and EWB faculty co-advisor Phil Thompson on a service mission to flood stricken Curtis, Washington.  The heavy rains that closed portions of I-5 in January also damaged hundreds of homes and left the local drinking water treatment plant incapable of providing safe water to the community. As a result, a water boiling requirement was expected to extend into April. 

The SU team traveled to the area to assist the Baw Faw Grange which was the flood relief headquarters for the area.  For each day during the cleanup effort, the grange served food to hundreds of volunteers from all over western Washington. Due to the boiling requirement, the kitchen staff was forced to wash dishes and clean vegetables with bottled water. The SU team installed a water treatment system uses microfiltration and ultraviolet light disinfection and was similar to the one employed in Thailand during August 2007.

Project Sponsors

This project was sponsored in part by SU alumnus John Sachs, The College of Science and Engineering and by our generous annual donors.