Quinault Nation, battling flooding issues, looks to escape the rising Pacific

Quinault has made flooding-related disaster declarations 26 times from 1957 to 2022, and they have become more frequent.

Standing water lies beneath the home Sonny Curley shares with his parents and three children on the Quinault reservation a few steps from the Pacific Ocean in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The back deck is rotting, and black mold speckles the walls inside, leaving the 46-year-old fisherman feeling drained if he spends too much time in the house.