floods

Buddy Chambers walks through the side door of his flooded mobile home earlier this month. Chambers, is long-time resident of the Wheel In Mobile Home Park near Tacoma, and drives trucks for a living. He lives with his partner Kelli and their cats.

Many towns throughout Western Washington were flooded the second week of January. Our photo staff was sent to several counties to cover sandbagging, evacuations, rising water and the aftermath. The first day out, my DOP Barry Fitzsimmons sent me to River Road, a stretch of unincorporated Pierce County outside of Tacoma and Fife. There, I met Buddy and Kelli. They own a mobile home, next to Clear Creek and the Puyallup River.

Buddy and Kelli went back to their flooded trailer to rescue their cats and grab a few clothes. It was Kelli's first time being flooded. Buddy said they do not have flood insurance because it is too expensive. Their neighbor Kurtis Wolfe helped them transport their pets by canoe.




















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The next day, in the town of Pacific, a flooded backyard didn’t deter Gianna Guerra, 10, (in red) and friends from jumping on the trampoline Friday at White River Estates. Guerra’s father transported her and her brother Christian Guerra Jr., 7, (behind in black) to the Hernandez home where they met their friends, including Chris Hernandez, 12, and Karina Hernandez, 10.

Snow

Red. A grey day outside sometimes needs a little color.

This was an image taken at the Ringling Bros. circus in Everett a few months ago.

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black tie, behind the scenes

- couple of photos that didn't run from the last PONCHO gala

Toes

Portrait of Elisha

Elisha Lancaster was the first child in Washington state to be "adopted" as an embryo. She is seen atop the family horse, Oso, who she often rides with her mother.

Cedar Park Assembly of God Church in Bothell is starting a new "embryo adoption" service, where couples who have gone through in vitro fertilization donate any leftover embryos to infertile couples. While that practice is, in itself, not particularly controversial, the question of what's to be done with some 400,000 frozen embryos in storage nationwide touches on some of the most controversial issues of the day, from abortion to embryonic stem-cell research.

Click here, to read Janet Tu's story and view our multimedia piece.

Elections 2008

Rally for Sen. Joe in Cheney Stadium in Tacoma.







Gov. Christine Gregoire in the Governor's Mansion in Olympia.



Election Night





Street celebration on Capital Hill











Day after election, UW's Kappa Kappa Gamma house's traditional campaign sign prank.



All images Copyright Erika Schultz and/or The Seattle Times