After a week of searching for the owner of dozens of family pictures found by a city of San Diego clean-up crew after last month’s storm, the pictures were reunited with the family they came from.
The photos were seen around San Diego and even as far as the Philippines.
“We lost everything, so when I saw a message and I was like, ‘Wait, my photos?!?’ ” Alma Dolopo told NBC 7.
As one might imagine, the past two weeks have been hectic for Dolopo. She and her husband were at their home in the Southcrest neighborhood during the flooding on Jan. 22, and they didn’t have time to grab any belongings before jumping into the floodwaters from their front door.
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“It was a lot that went on," Dolopo said. "It was horrible."
Days later, Dolopo got a message from her sister in the Philippines, who told her she saw some of her photos online. Dolopo said she brushed it off and had to explain to her sister what happened. She didn’t know anything about the flooding yet.
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Then, another message came in about pictures of her and her family being found. Then, another and another, until Dolopo took a moment to pause and take in what they were saying.
“All of my other friends were, like, showing me something from Instagram, and I’m like, 'Hey! Those are our photos,” Dolopo said, referring to NBC 7’s reel about the city trying to find her.
Dolopo reached out to NBC 7 and then got in touch with the city of San Diego. She arranged to pick up the photos at the Parks and Recreation Department office in Balboa Park. She brought a small bag with her, because she was so excited to scoop them up and take them home.
“I just really can’t thank them enough,” Dolopo said, with the clean-up crew in mind, shortly after seeing her photos for the first time since they were recovered. “The first thing when I saw the photos was: There’s really, like, good people out there that would really, like, stop what they’re doing and say, You know, like, 'Hey, I got to get them to the owners,' ” Dolopo said, fighting back tears as she pointed out memories, like a trip to Excalibur in Las Vegas with her husband when they had just gotten married.
Dolopo explained her kids seen in some of the pictures as babies are now 10 and 24 years old, along with the eldest, who is in his 30s.
“Every step they made, like, I took pictures and I saved them, like, wow,” she said.
Dolopo added that, while it's still difficult for her family right now, between finding a new house and working with her insurer to recoup the costs of their car, this offered some hope.
“This actually gave me more, like, a boost to just, like, 'Let’s go, keep going, we got to make more memories,' ” Dolopo said.
Dolopo added that she is grateful for everyone who spread the word to reunite her with their pictures. She “didn’t expect anything” and thought they were gone for good.
“I can’t even explain, like, how I feel right now,” Dolopo said. “We’re just trying to be strong for each other.”
The photos were found on Jan. 30 at Southcrest Trails Park near Beta Street. Ramon Galindo, a public information officer for the city of San Diego, said crews were working in the areas hit hardest by last week’s flooding and came across furniture, clothing, toys, book — you name it — but the discovery was enough to make them stop what they were doing.
“It was in that process of using their heavy machinery and picking up that mud when they saw these albums there among the debris, and it really just touched them," Galindo said.
