COTTAGE LAKE, Wash. — Workers on the streets of Woodinville and Cottage Lake are busy trying to restore power, but inside people’s homes, things are starting to get dire. Perishables are melting, and many are running out of fuel for their grills and fireplaces.
Cottage Lake’s only grocery store, Safeway, managed to stay open with reduced power from a generator, selling dry goods only. Throughout the day, neighbors who needed ice and propane were unfortunately turned away, because the store had sold out.
It was a dark situation -- one that a group of high school friends took time to recognize.
"Seeing like all the trees that fell down and stuff," said Maysen Bury, a Junior at Woodinville High School.
Like thousands of others in his area, Maysen also had no power at his house, and his school was canceled for the day.
"You can’t really play video games without WiFi," said Bury, smiling.
He and his twin, Jayden Bury, called up their friends.
Kyson Kleve, 16, was one of those friends. He said, "They were like, 'Dude, let's go help out.'"
That is exactly what they did.
"We just kinda went door to door for the first hour asking if people needed help," said Maysen.
Maysen said they actually used to run a lawn care business called Bountiful Properties, but added, "It wasn't very successful." Still, this experience put them in a prime position to help out their neighbors after this week's storm.
They brought electric saws, rakes, and other tools to help their neighbors clear their driveways and properties.
"There was a fallen tree right here," they said, pointing to a woman's driveway they were working on. "We sawed it off. It was covering almost the whole driveway.”
"We're just kind of just sweeping up all the debris, any fallen trees... we're just cutting them, cutting them into smaller pieces, and then we're going to dump it," the boys said.
"And then really, anything else they need," Maysen said.
They cleaned everything up for the woman. This -- after the doing the same for another family earlier in the day. They said they plan on getting to more houses the following day if school is still canceled.
"Our parents basically raised us to put, like, other people first," said Maysen.
"Oh for sure, same with my parents," said Kyson.
"Especially like older people who are having a harder time doing this," Maysen added.
Maysen, Jayden, and Kyson are not the only neighbors helping neighbors. When a woman posted in a Woodinville Facebook group asking for help, offers came pouring in. A user named Mandy Liora even invited her into her home, offering free food and hot water.
On TikTok, Marco Mediate and his friends Ben Bell and Luke Dequilettes documented the help they provided to people at the height of the storm's severe conditions Tuesday night.
The three men live in Seattle, but they first traveled to Bellevue and then kept driving east.
"We just wanted to get out there and help the neighborhood. We figured it was getting pretty bad since it was like easterly winds," said Mediate.
The men found public roadways that were blocked by fallen debris, and used both power tools and brute strength to get those fallen limbs and stumps off to the sides of the roads.
He told KING 5, "We jumped on 90 and got off on Issaquah and it was just pandemonium out there."
He added, "We were just dicing up the trees. We weren’t messing with any of the power lines."
They are from Florida originally, Mediate said, so they have experience with cleaning up the damage from a storm.
In the video, Mediate can be heard saying, "Trying to save some lives out here."
Later in the video, Mediate says, "Alright well that’s about as much as we can do without getting killed by these other trees falling down."