A year after the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill, a new life has been found at a small camp in Montana.
The camp was once home to 300 people, but the number of people living there dwindled as the spill and the destruction of the camp’s fish and wildlife habitat led to the loss of thousands of acres of the region’s coastline.
The camp is now just a few dozen people.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Jennifer Czajkowski, the camp coordinator.
“We were told we were a very, very small town,” Czabkowski said.
“We were the only people left in the town, and we were left with nothing.”
Czajkowskis family is a small, working-class family from the small town of Wysoka, Montana, in the northwest corner of the state.
The family was able to get back on their feet after the oil spill.
But when the oil started to leak, the Czasawskis’ home had to be evacuated and their fish and their animals were taken from the waters.
“When you go through that, you think about everything you’ve worked for, you know, all the work you’ve put in,” said Czajiks, who lives in Wysokie.
“And then you see all of this, and you just don’t want to go through it.”
“I was so excited, we were so happy,” Czarakowski said.
She was part of the group that decided to return to Wysoks home town, which was also the camp for her father, a former oil worker.
Czarakowsk’s father was the first person to be released from the camp.
She said the family’s family’s lives were devastated, but they were able to make it through the worst.
“It’s hard to explain, because we had to come back to Wymansburg, which is a town in Montana,” Czaajkow said.
The family’s home was destroyed, and the camp is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Wymersburg, about an hour north of the city of Wylie.
But the camp remains intact and the Czaasawski’s have continued to raise their children in the camp, despite the loss.
“This is not something we have to live with, but we’re able to live, so we don’t really have to worry about it,” Czeajkowski said, laughing.
She said she knows that she and her family are lucky to be living on land where the land was once pristine.
But she’s not sure what the future holds for the Czaraks.
“What will be the future?
I’m not sure, but I’m going to take it as I see it,” she said.”
If it’s not here, I’ll be back.”
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