This is a post that I have not been able to write for 10 +
months because for one this is by far the hardest thing that I have ever been
through with my family and also the most spiritual. I have never had so many things happen to me
and my family throughout my life where I could see that the lord is involved in
the innermost intricate details of our lives.
It has also taken months to see all the blessings that has
come from this hardship and to be honest it has taken me a while to be able to
write this without filling up with all kinds of emotions that is why I have
choose to date this post from beginning of the events as they unfolded. I will go through the events, my thoughts, my
fears along with the blessings that we experienced with this trial. I will start from before the mudslide on. I will do all of my writing first and then
post all the videos and pictures when I am finished. Because of the intensity of
what happened this will be a long post. ;)
Day 1 – September 1, 2012.
This was a Saturday morning and we had gotten up to start our day. Just east of our house is a water holding
pond that was put in by the city so that if we had a large storm the water from
the mountains could come down and have a place to collect and then slowly
drain. The rain came down hard during
the night and when we woke up that holding pond which is a block in size and at
least 10-15 feet deep from top to bottom was completely full of water. It has never done that in all the years of us
living in our home and so we as a neighborhood were all surprised by it. When I first seen it I thought that there was
no way that the entire pond could be full.
So I had my family walk down and look at it with me. Once we got there, most the neighborhood was
down there too. To our surprise it was
completely full. Wow, crazy to us.
We walked back up to the house did some chores went about
our day. Russell, Easton and our
neighbor Mike Ruoho decided to go dove hunting this afternoon. They took the truck and left around 2:00 pm.
As the day went on the clouds blew in and the day looked gloomier. Around 4:00 it started to Hail large balls of
hail there is a picture of them and the size. Hunter and I went out to the
garage and watched it hail and picked up a few of the balls that rolled into
the garage. I called Russell to see
where he was at because I was worried that they were stuck in this storm in the
mountains. To my relief they had started
to come home because of the rain and were on redwood road. As the hail continued to fall Hunter was
beginning to worry about Nixon, our neighbor Andy Schreyer’s dog that he was in
charge of dog sitting for the weekend. I
told him yes he better go and put him in the garage so that he would be
safe. So Hunter went into the house and
got his umbrella. When he came out to go
and get him the hail came down harder and bigger about the size of a quarter. I did not feel safe sending him down the road
so I told him that he couldn’t go. That
he was putting himself in danger and that his life was worth more to me than a
dog. After a short disagreement he
finally went back into the house. Within
a few minutes I received a phone call from my next door neighbor Raquel
McManus. She said you have to come
outside and see the river of water coming down the ravine. So I ran into the house and grabbed my camera
thinking she was out standing near the ravine, went out my garage door just in
time to get video of the beginnings of the flood.
I recorded the water as it ran down the street and over took
the yard and the house. As you can hear
in the video I was frantic, but not fully understanding what was entirely
taking place I stood there for several minutes in shock and awe at what was
unfolding before my very eyes. I then
heard Hunter in the back ground yell something about the basement. I stopped recording so that I could call Russ
and see what was going on in the house.
I was able to get a hold of Mike and he confirmed to me that they were
ok. So I hung up with them and continued
to assess the damage. I looked in the
basement and the entire basement was filled with water and mud. I called Russ scared for my family and my
home. I was so scared that the water and
mud would fill all the way up the basement and up to the main level. I would
call Russell and say it’s moving up the stairs is 5 feet from the main level,
its 4 feet , its 3 feet and then I heard a crash and the mud had stopped coming
up the stairs. I told Russell I felt
safe and that I would hold out until the storm had stopped. At that point I went and grabbed the video
camera to capture all the events as the mudslide raged out of control around my
house. I started to video from the
window of Betty’s room and then I moved out to the back deck. As I was recording on the back deck Shawn
McManus started to yell at me to get out of the house because the mud and rocks
had just ripped the gas line off the side of the house and that the house could
blow up. When I went back into the house
the entire house smelled of gas. So I
called to Hunter and Betty and we grabbed our 72 hour kits and went into the
garage. I called out to the Firemen on
the corner of the road to help me and my kids get out of the house so they with
help from some of the men in the neighborhood formed a man chain through the
raging mud and water and passed both Hunter and Betty down the line. At that time Grandma and Grandpa Godfrey showed
up and helped me out of the house with my sister Amy and her son Davin. They
also walked to the basement and were shocked to find out that the water had
drained by this time and it was a solid wall of mud that came up the stairs 4
feet and all the way to the ceiling in the front of the house and 4-5 feet deep
towards the back of the house. I
remember my Dad walking down and standing on the mud as he stepped onto the mud
his foot sunk slightly and then he walked across the rest of the mud shocked at
how much was down stairs and how thick it was.
It felt like to me sheer panic and confusion. I had no idea where Hunter and Betty were and
where I should go. I knew that we had no
cloths in the 72 hour kits for Russell and I so as I was leaving I grabbed a
complete change of cloth’s for both of us.
As I was walking out of the house all I could find were my flip flops so
I put them on and walked out the door.
The Mud was clear up to the middle of my shins. Walking in the mud was extremely hard. As Amy tried to walk out of our garage she
slipped on the mud and her and Davin both fell into the mud. They were both crying because they were so
scared. Mom said come with me to my car
we are just down the road and around the corner. I could see the car from my house. So I started to walk down the road all of us
slipping and trying our best to walk through the mud. I got down the road and started up the hill
as I went to lift my leg my flip flops got stuck in the mud I tried to keep
walking but I couldn’t lift my foot and l fell face first right in all the mud. All the cloths that I had grabbed and my cell
phone were now covered in mud. I was
covered in mud and I was done. I just
laid there and began to cry. When I
looked up there stood my bishop. Bishop
Culley with his arms out stretched helping me out of the mud. He grabbed all the cloths he could see, at
this point it was dark outside. This was
the 1st time I had seen Russell.
He pulled up right behind Mom’s car and so they put the muddy cloths in
the back of the truck and Mom wrapped me in a blanket that she had in her
car. Mom had talked about having us
going to her house and leaving with her but I needed to find Hunter and
Betty. So I told her to leave and that I
would call her and make plans once I felt like I could think straight. She
called me within 10 minutes of leaving the development and told me that the
mudslide had completely washed Redwood Road which is the main road into our
house away and several of the side roads and that they were being diverted
around Utah Lake into Payson and around That it would be several hours before
they would be home. At that point
Russell and I went and found Betty and Hunter at our neighbors the Dyrings house
and were invited to stay there as long as we needed too. She gave me a change of clothes to wear and
I went into her mud room and cleaned off as best as I could and put on the
clean clothes. Once freshened up as much
as I could get without a shower I went out and sat in Erin’s living room with
some of my other neighbors as the sand bags were being set up. According to the National Weather Forecast we
were supposed to be getting a larger storm headed out our way within a few
hours and they were trying to prepare for the potential water and mud that
would more than likely come our way. We
watched the news stories to see how far the mud had reached in the city and to
see what the weather man was saying about the approaching storm.
As the night progressed and the threat of the storm had
passed. An answer to several prayers,
Russell pulled me aside and said that we had a large boulder was washed through
the front window of our home and that it had broken out a large section of the
back of our house. He asked me if I
wanted to come over and see the damage that had occurred from the storm. So we walked over hand in hand to see all the
damage that had taken place. When I
first saw it I was overwhelmed. I could
not believe the amount of damage to our home and instantly wondered how bad the
rest of the homes were that had been affected.
How many other homes in my neighborhood were damaged and how we were
ever going to clean out the mud and if there was going to be anything
salvageable from the basement.
Around Midnight we finally made our way back to the Dyrings
house and they were so kind and sweet the kids were already asleep and they had
made up a bed for Russell and me. We
both tried to get some kind of sleep that night as tired as I was that was extremely
hard. They had trucks going all night
long moving dirt. They were out putting
up sand bags around the homes hit and working hard to prepare for the help that
would be coming the next day. It was a
very restless night. As the sun came up
around 6:00 Russell and I got up and went to the store to get us some mud boots
so that we could start to clean. We came
back and Russell took the videos that will be added to this post of all the
damage around the yard and house I took several pictures. We walked our street and the street below our
house and found that there were 10 other homes that were severely affected by
the mudslide. Hoffmans, Vicks, McManus,
Our Home, Ruoho’s, Schreyer’s, McCellen’s, Renchers, Henderson’s and the
Martin’s. Those with walk out basements had broken
windows and the mud was able to run in the front and out the back windows there
were 5 homes like this. The Ruoho’s were
lucky to not get any mud in their home.
It did completely fill a cut out that was 4-5 feet deep that rested
against a glass sliding door that they were blessed did not break and they also
had a car parked on the side of the road that was washed down into the
ravine. The other 3 homes did not have
walkout basements and they had mud from the floor of their basements clear to
the ceiling and up their stairs just shy of the main level of their homes.
This was a Sunday and of course we did not attend
church. Our sweet stake president,
President Edwards gathered all the wards from our entire Stake at 9:00am and
told them there was a work that needed to be done and had each stake take the
sacrament and then set up increments of members to come at assigned times to
each of our houses. As we worked in the
yard there were hundreds of volunteers that met at the church and were given a
check-in and direction as to where to begin to help. It was overwhelming to see
the thousands and thousands of Stake and Ward members, Family, Friends,
Community members and complete strangers who had seen it on the news show up to
help in any way they could. What an
amazing site. Many of us were in tears
most of the day because of the selfless efforts of so many to help all of us in
a time of need to accomplish a sheer impossible task alone. We had fire trucks, City officials, state
officials and general authorities that came through to assess the damage and
see where they could provide help. There
were food stations set up where you could go and get food and water that had
been made by Relief Societies in the stake with donated food from Smith’s
Grocery and Wal-mart. They had 1st
aid stations that you could go to if you were hurt. There were stake neighborhood watch leaders
on 4-wheelers going from house to house to see the needs. There were items that were being delivered
that Home Depot had donated towards the clean-up efforts. They donated buckets, shovels, work gloves, Shop-Vacs,
lumber, squeegees, hoses and anything else that was needed. There were and bags
that were filled and stacked throughout the neighborhood by volunteers
throughout the night. We had workers
from Eagle Mountain City with bob cats, dump trucks that were being filled with
mud and hauled away. There were several
dumpsters donated per house to load all the buckets and wheel barrows that were
being filled with mud and hail and placed in the streets and bobcats donated to
those who could run them to scoop the mud piles in the road and put them into
the dumpsters. Volunteers at my house
went in with wheelbarrows from the back door and would shovel until the wheel
barrow was full and then dump it into the road.
At homes that did not have a walk out basement they had men go down in 2
hour increments with buckets they would fill the buckets and lift them out the
window to a chain of volunteers that would pass the buckets down the line and
dump it into the street. We also went through all the pile of our belongings
that were piled in the back yard trying to decide what if any of them were
salvageable.
This went on for hours.
The first group showing up around 9:00 in the morning and they did not
leave until it was too dark to see and were back Monday morning at 8:00am. We had volunteers in our home all day Monday
and they cleaned all the mud out of the house by that night and were able to
start to power spray the dirt down from off the walls and floor. This made it so that I was able to go and
help in some of the other neighbor’s homes.
The homes with the walk out basements were the first to be cleared of
the mud and debris. Not that there is a
need to mention but I will so you have an idea of what was lost. We kept all of our holiday decorations down
stair. Anything that we didn’t use every
day or at least weekly was stored in the basement. All the baby stuff we had. Cloths that the kids had outgrown, All of
Russell’s hunting things, his gun safe that was full of all important documents
like S.S. Cards, Pass Ports, Russell’s Paytriartical blessing, guns that had
been handed down to him from his Grandpa.
Just the month before I had moved the kid’s entire toy room down stairs
so all of their toys were down there. We
had a full queen bed set that was down there.
A curio cabinet that I kept my porcelain dolls in. A full living room
set with a TV, DVD and VHS player with over 100 movies. Yearbooks, trophies, food storage and several
items that I am sure it will be years before we know or maybe even never. Russell and I have a new saying of “well we
use to have” J
It took 4 days more to before every house that was affected
was completely cleared of mud. There were more hours than can be counted. It has been guesstimated that there over
2,000 volunteers show up and over 8,000 volunteer hours that were donated in
the clean-up efforts and here 10 months later I think that most of us are just
about done with fixing our yards and trying to repair the damage and replace
lost trees and bushes, sprinkler lines and heads, drip lines and dirt and
bark. Some of the homes elected to just
dig it all up and start over from scratch. Hopefully by September 1st
we can hold a large neighborhood party to celebrate that this trial is totally
behind us but the memories that we made it!!
Now for the blessings that came from this and how my
testimony has grown and knowledge that the Lord sent many blessing and angles
in all kinds of forms to get us through this and keep my family safe. Please keep in mind while reading this that
this part of the story is very special and sacred to me and my purpose for
writing this is to 1 have an account that I can always look back on and
remember. 2 that my kids and the many generations after me will be able to see
how the lord watches over us and to be able to share this with those who love
and care for us. Please respect the
sacredness of this when reading and sharing these events.
The first blessing that took place was the Hail that came
down before the mudslide. Hunter would
have been walking down the sidewalk to get Nixon out of his kennel had the hail
not turned into large quarter size balls.
We figured that had it continued to come down the size it was when the
storm started he would have been about where the car was that belonged to Jake
Ruoho at the time it was washed away into the ravine. There is no way that he would have been able
to withstand the intensity of the mud and water as it raged down the road and
he would have drown.
The second blessing that took place was that on the way home
from hunting just as the water and mud began to run a car was driving down
redwood road and had hydro planed off the side of the road and Russell stopped
to pull them back on the road before pulling into the development. They pulled up the road just in time to see
Jakes car go into the ravine. We figured
had they not stopped to help that driver they would have been driving up the
road where Jakes car was at and would have also been washed into the ravine
with Jakes car.
The third blessing that took place was that when the
mudslide was raging I received a phone call from my neighbor Bev Richins. She asked me if we were ok and if we were
stuck and what was going on at our home.
She told me to stay calm and that she would call 911 and have them send
the fire department. If she didn’t call
and let them know that we were stuck in the house they would not have been
outside my garage to get my kids out when the gas line was ripped off the side
of our house.
The forth blessing that took place is one that involved me
and my neighbor Andy Schreyer. They were
out of town on a camping trip Flaming Gorge.
That is why Hunter was dog sitting for him. I called him to see if he had heard from
anyone else in the neighborhood and he seen it was me and thought I was calling
about their dog Nixon. He answered and I
told him that he needed to come home that the damage was extensive to his home
and that he needed to be here. Later I
found out that where they were camping they did not get cell phone
service. He and Annie had been debating
coming in with his dad to an on the water fireworks show that they did and
after going back and forth they decided to attend the show and were just
pulling into the docs which is one of the only places you can get service as I
called. Had I not called when I did he
would not have heard the news until Monday on their way home.
The fifth blessing was that as the gas line was ripped off
the side of my house another neighbor Brandon Richins was in the back yard and heard it and was able to run over and bend off the pipe out of the ground that saved my house from potential of blowing up.
These were all on the first day.
The sixth blessing was watching as thousands of volunteers came and came and came to help us in our time of need. The meals that were brought in, those who took my kids to play so they didn’t have to be around when their stuff that was covered in mud was thrown away. Watching as hundreds of volunteers were able to clear 5 to 8 feet of mud within 10 hours from my home.
The next bunch of blessings I am going to lump into one big one and that is all the donations of items and services that were donated to our family to help get our home back to livability. We had our window’s, water heater, furnace, A/C unit, grass seed, compost, spreaders, labor to install items, and of course money to help us put our house back together. I am so grateful to all of those who donated these items. I remember the 3rd day of the mudslide when the Bishop came to me and told me that there was going to be no federal monies coming to help aid in the recovery. At this point we had talked to our insurance company and we found out that they were not going to cover anything either. That this fell under acts of God and Mother Nature. At the time that the Bishop told me that we were not going to get financial help my Relief Society President and close friend Lori Young was standing with me. Thank goodness she was there because up until this point I had tried to be positive through all of it relying on the thought that we would receive the money to help with the recovery. When I was told that nothing was coming I collapsed into Lori’s arms. I just started to cry. I told the Bishop that we might as well just stop working on our house because there was no way we could put our house back together ourselves. That I was going to lose my house even after all that was done and I just sobbed. The bishop told me that he would not allow that to happen. To know that there were members out working on getting things for our homes to help and that there we were defiantly not in charge of this alone. We have an AMAZING neighbor and close friend Joy Layton whose home was not hit by the mudslide. She put together nightly meetings for each of us who got hit by the mudslide so that we could see who had gotten what deals from what companies. She had ward members who were calling companies to see who would donate items or give discounts to us. In the end we were able to keep our house and put our house back together. One of the stories that I want to tell is the story of our A/C unit. The reason why I choose this story out of the many is to be able to show how the lord is very aware of each of us and our circumstances and if we are living the best we can the lord sends angles our way. I received a phone call about 2 weeks after the mud slide from a man who wanted to know if we needed an A/C unit. I told him yes that we were still in need of one but that I knew nothing about what kind or size. So I gave him Russell’s cell phone number. That night when Russ got home I asked him if he had received a phone call from this man. He said yes and that the man had told him that he owned a company where they sold and installed heating and a/c. He said that he was prompted to call the Stake president and see if there was a family who still needed and A/C unit and he was told by him that we were in need and given our number. He found out what we needed ordered it from his supplier and had his son deliver the unit to our home because he did not want us to know who he was. He would only give us his 1st name and said that he was doing it because the lord wanted him too. There were several acts of kindness and love and Christ like living through this and my testimony will be forever changed.
Thank you to everyone who prayed for us, donated time, service, talents and any other things to helping us get back on our feet and back into our home.
Pictures of the mudslide as it was happening.
Morning After the mudslide before any work had been done.
This is the pile of mud in the road that was dumped after being removed from the basements and then scooped up and put into a dumpster with a bobcat.
This is the pile of things we tried to salvage.
Here is a picture of the pile of things that we were not able to save and went to the dumpster.
Here are some pictures of some of the many volunteers that helped clean out our basement. For the first day I didn't want to get in the way so I don't have pictures of everyone who helped. there were literally hundreds of people here helping. I am so grateful for each and every one who helped through this.
Here is a picture of the road after most of the mud was cleaned from the houses and the fire department came and sprayed down the grass and road.
Here are pictures of Hunters football team helping clean up the back yard from all the stucco that had to be pulled off because of the cracking from being hit from or broken from the pressure of the mud on the inside of the house.
the news showed up and interviewed Hunter and Gabe Lee his football coach because they came to help on a day where there was suppose to be a large rain storm hit. Thank goodness it passed us by and the team was our local hero's for the day.
Here are some pictures at a fundraiser that was done to raise money to help us put our houses back together. Cosmo came and they had musicians come sing and auctions items that had been donated for people to bid on.
New's footage of the Football team
