BC couple still shaken a month after McBride landslide

Photo: Contributed

An elderly McBride couple is still reeling a month after narrowly escaping with their lives from a mudslide that destroyed their home.

Garry and Mabel Moore said it sounded like a freight train was coming through their house in the middle of the night.

Garry had to break the kitchen window so he, Mabel, and their granddaughter's little dog could escape.

"I just tucked her under my arm and waded through the water, mud and debris that was waist-high to get out," Mabel recalled. "Your adrenaline kicks in and you just go. You don't even stop to think about how scary it is at that particular moment - it's afterward when you get the shakes and yeah. I have no idea how we got out but we did and we're both very grateful."

Garry and Mabel's legs were bruised and cut pretty badly and other parts of their bodies were injured too.

"Our toes were badly bruised because we had bare feet and we're going through the rocks and debris and gravel and mud," Mabel said. "Garry got a wicked cut on his arm about seven inches long and about two inches deep."

The couple, who have been married for 49 years, lived in their home for 37 years.

They are lying low, Mabel said, at their son and daughter-in-law's home in McBride for the time being trying to figure out what's next for them.

This kind of devastation is not covered by their insurance as it is considered "an act of God." Mabel got a call from Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond recently with details on applying for the provincial Disaster Financial Assistance Program.

"We're just in the process of filling out the papers for that and fingers crossed we'll get something out of it," Mabel said.

There are four properties on Mountainview Road that were effected and those properties are still under evacuation orders.

"But our property took the brunt of the slide," Mabel said.

Their property is completely destroyed. There's mud higher than the kitchen stove that's settled into the house.

"You know you think of all the years in the home and all the work that went into it," Mabel said. "For all the years - my husband worked hard all those years and I worked - and you know there were so many mementos we had from when our kids were little and they're all gone. But as I keep saying, every day we get up and put our feet on the floor we hope for a better day."

Community support has been heartwarming, Mabel said, and a fundraising campaign has been set up to help them.

"This is pretty devastating but our little community here is absolutely the best," she added. "Everybody supports us in one way or another and it's been great that way."