Posted on 12/30/2003 10:04:37 AM PST by GrandMoM
As the waves of mud and debris swept him down a California hillside, Woodinville resident Stephen Phillips' life was reduced to single struggles: dodging the mobile homes that tumbled toward him, grabbing at logs and utility poles that offered fleeting respites and counting the time between breaths.
In the few seconds when fear was not all consuming, he begged God to please let him again see his children, who were also in the mudslide's path.
Phillips recounted his survival story by telephone from his hospital bed in San Bernardino, Calif., where the 43-year-old software developer and outdoor enthusiast lies recovering from a broken arm, massive abrasions and puncture wounds he received at a campground north of there on Christmas.
Fourteen people died that night after heavy rains washed away the slopes of the denuded San Bernardino Mountains 60 miles east of Los Angeles, where wildfires raged this fall.
The threat of mudslides continues, as the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning through this evening for the area. One to three inches of rain was expected last night.
Phillips, along with his wife, three children and a niece, were staying at a KOA campground in Devore, Calif., while visiting relatives in nearby San Bernardino for the holidays.
When the family checked in on Christmas Eve, the sky was overcast. Rain began falling late that night. Campers awoke to find the single road in and out of the campground washed away and replaced by a wide swath of knee-deep mud that was passable only by heavy-duty four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Two streams that flowed through the campground had jumped their banks.
A fire truck came by the site later in the day, Phillips said, and he asked an emergency worker if he would evacuate his children, who are 5, 3 and 8 months. The worker told him no, saying the situation was not an emergency.
"I asked what to do, and he said I should just leave right now. I told him my vehicle couldn't pass through and he said, 'I can't help you,' " Phillips said.
Stuck with a minivan and a trailer, the family settled in for a Christmas without presents or dinner, which waited at Grandma's house in town.
Rain continued, falling harder as the day became night.
Some year-round residents took pity and invited the family for a Christmas meal. A small slide forced Phillips to move the family's trailer. Around midnight, on his way back from relocating the trailer and on his way to dinner, he heard a loud roar on the hill above him.
"I looked up, and above me a wall of water just vaulted into the sky about 12 feet high. It was coming down toward me and wasn't more than 100 feet away. I didn't have time to react," he said.
A mobile home swept up in the water knocked him to the ground and spun him around. In front of Phillips was another trailer, and within seconds he was pinned between the two.
"I was fighting as hard as I could to keep the trailer from crushing my ribs. After 10 seconds, they just separated," he said.
The current, which emergency workers later said moved as fast as 40 mph, caught Phillips and pulled him feet first and sitting up as mud and sand sprayed into his eyes.
"I couldn't see anything, only light and dark," he said.
He grabbed what looked like tree branches, but they broke in his hands. The current pushed him, and he caught hold of a solid object, perhaps a utility pole. Another object slammed against his left arm, fracturing it and pinning him to the pole. As waves rushed over his head, he resorted to scuba diving techniques and counted the time between each breath.
He broke free, and a log appeared next to him. He grabbed hold and caught his breath.
The respite was short-lived. Up ahead, the roar grew louder.
"It was not the sound of water, it was the sound of stones crashing together and things breaking. That's the sound (my) ears were filled with," Phillips said.
Suddenly, he felt solid ground under him and struggled to move away from the roar. After 30 seconds, he reached shore, where he collapsed.
"I was begging God to let me see my children. What a horrible thing to die on Christmas and leave them with that memory. I didn't even know where (they) were."
He could barely see and couldn't feel his left arm. He struggled to the nearby freeway, climbing a chain-link fence to get there. A passing motorist picked him up.
"There is no reason I should have survived this. I struggled and fought hard. ... One boulder could have crushed me, and that would have been it."
The slide had carried him about 2 1/2 miles in about five minutes. His injuries are healing, and he could be released from Arrowhead Regional Medical Center as soon as today.
As for his family, the neighbors' trailer they were in was badly damaged by debris, but the family survived unscathed.
He said he is angry with county officials who allowed the camp to rent spaces -- he found the campsite on the Internet, unaware of the danger from the recent fires -- and who in his view have played down the threat of slides.
Phillips said he is bringing his family back home to the Puget Sound area as soon as he can.
"We need to get home. We need to get home and heal," he said.
As for his family, the neighbors' trailer they were in was badly damaged by debris, but the family survived unscathed. ....Praise GOD!
um, SUV's?
Most of the "Old" fire burned through brush. That brush is on extremely steep hillsides; some slopes are steeper than 32 degrees, the angle of repose. There is no practical way to thin the brush by hand or machine. Even if you had a way, it'd grow back within a couple of years. I assume from your handle that you live in Colorado. The terrain and foliage in Southern California are very different then those of the Rockies. The brush here is called chaparral and is very dense and woody. It is virtually impenetrable on foot.
Here is a photo of the mountains near the mudslide. The camp was at about 2900' and the treeline doesn't start until about 4500'.
Second, a tanker was requested for fighting one of the CA fires, but it was 1 minute past no-fly time for the aircraft. (Can't have pilots fly in the dark, it's too dangerous.) The pilot wanted to go but a political decision refused this.
That was the "Cedar" fire, in San Diego County. I'd consider that a safety decision, not a political decision. Forest fires have killed a lot of firemen (and airdrop pilots) so rules have been developed to deal with safety issues. Are there too many rules? Probably. But politics has nothing to do with it. It's bureaucrats who are the problem.
Third, CA refused volunteer help, it's against union rules. I'd tell those who lost property and loved ones who the union leaders are who did this, and welcome them to sue them into oblivion for being responsible for turning away free help, equipment, and resources. For that matter, I'd tell them which enviro groups obstructed efforts to log and thin, making the fires unfightable, and invite them to be sued into oblivion as well.
Do we allow untrained volunteers to jump in and fight house fires? No. To operate Abrams tanks in war? No. Volunteers are appreciated, but firefighting is a job that requires some basic training and coordination. There were bureaucratic snafus, certainly, and those are being reviewed. But one of the biggest problems for the "Cedar" fire was that the county and city had not taxed and spent enough on building their own fire fighting resources.
I have always wanted to be an artist, but that was not the gift he chose for me. Rather, I suspect it was being a Grandmother, because my happiest day's are when I am with my Grandson!!!!
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