Family member of Oso victims ‘shocked’ by rafting trip

Karen Pszonka lost six family members to the Oso landslide. She and others believe there are still remains of loved ones buried in the debris.

“It was quite a devastating loss,” Pszonka told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson.

Many of the 43 bodies recovered were not recovered whole, Pszonka pointed out. Of her six deceased family members, her two grandchildren were the only ones found “intact,” she said.

“It is a cemetery…,” she said.

It’s also the reason why Pszonka was offended that Dave Button of Pacific Northwest Float Trips hosted a rafting trip down the North Fork Stillaguamish River and through the slide area on Sunday.

Button has had mixed feelings about the tour past Oso, he told Dori on Monday. He’s received “numerous” calls and emails arguing against him hosting the tours. The guide even received a cease and desist letter.

For Pszonka, people floating past ground zero isn’t the most offensive aspect of Button’s trip. It’s the idea that the river is so low, that rafters may have to get out of a raft and walk around an area with human remains. She said she would be OK with people just floating through, she told Dori.

Pszonka was also offended that Button eventually decided to host a trip, despite telling the public he was cancelling the tours back in March.

“At that point, he said, ‘We’re not going to do this,'” Pszonka said. “We were so shocked when he decided to go back to it again.”

So is it wrong for people to want to see the devastation? Dori asked.

Pszonka gave Dori this analogy: People go to Hollywood to see where famous people died. It might be a little “ghoulish,” but it’s their right.

“Our issue is [the public] stay off of private property,” she added.

If people are going to Oso to learn from the slide to ensure something like it doesn’t happen again, then Pszonka holds nothing against them.