The Rains Came, the Mud Flowed

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Death and destruction in Northern California

It had all the appearances of a very normal storm as it came across the Pacific," said National Weather Service Meteorologist Richard Wagoner. But the storm was far from normal, and so was its nightmarish impact. The extraordinarily heavy rains that poured down on Northern California last week—in some areas, more than a foot in 32 hours—followed weeks of rain that had saturated the porous clay earth. On Monday, mountainsides began turning to mud, flowing in thick torrents over towns and rural houses in their paths. In wealthy Marin Bounty, just north of San Francisco, more han 80 houses were destroyed by mud slides. In Santa Cruz County, to the south, where thousands of people were trapped their homes without power or water, authorities suspect that perhaps more than a dozen bodies remain buried.

At week's end the death toll approached 30, and property damage (500 houses and businesses destroyed) was expected to reach $280 million. Five counties were declared federal disaster areas, and 2,000 state workers, as well as 200 National Guardsmen, were engaged in the daunting rescue and cleanup operations.

In Santa Cruz County, the greatest devastation occurred along Love Creek, near the town of Ben Lomond (pop. 2,793). Naomi Taylor says she heard a rumbling and looked outside. There, 20 ft. away, a 15-ft.-high tide of water and mud cascaded past, carrying her car with it. Her house was unscathed. Lester Grizzell, 54, slept through the mud slide. Says he: "It snuck in so smooth and slippery we didn't even hear it." But when he awoke, surrounding houses were gone. In another Santa Cruz town, Felton (pop. 2,062), John Raskins and his family fled from their home as it filled with muck. A salvage attempt proved fruitless. Says Haskins, 33: "Every time we get feeling bad about some of the things we lost, I just think that I have my three children."

Up the coast in Pacifica (pop. 36,866), a middle-class suburb just south of San Francisco, William and Barbara Velez had no such redemption. The mud sent a neighboring house crashing into theirs. The couple escaped, but all three Velez children, ages three to 14, died beneath 100 tons of mud.