SAN MATEO (KRON) — Multiple families in the South Bay were forced out of their homes after a mudslide nearly wiped them out on Wednesday.
In a moment of desperation, one mother turned to Facebook Live to call for help.
This family is lucky they made it out without getting hurt. A wall of mud came crashing down on their Los Gatos property.
One woman pulled out her phone and started filming.
“Everything just got washed away with mud. I’m trying to get a hold of everybody. The lines are down,” Jennifer Ray said in the video.
The Rays home is in a remote part of Los Gatos.
When a mudslide wiped out part of their home, Ray took to Facebook Live during Tuesday’s storm to spread the word and call for help.
It was 8 a.m. and she and her husband John were in bed with their 4 and 2-year-old when the ground started to move.
“You just saw all this stuff coming down, all this mud and water and trees and all this other debris,” Ray said. “And we just ran outside and I just kept screaming, ‘Check Jessica. Check Jessica. My sister.'”
Jessica has a 9-month-old and is pregnant. She lives in a second home on the property.
“My mom was carrying my daughter,” Ray said. “She fell and then we just ran. We just ran as fast as we could to the jeep and piled everyone in.”
In the process of escaping the slide, Jennifer, her mom, and John, fell and injured their legs.
“You look outside and you watch a lot of hard work,” John said. “A lot of sacrifice and things you do for your children literally getting washed away.”
In the third home on the property lives Jennifer’s dad.
“That home was my dad’s dream. He always wanted him and us to all be on one property,” Ray said. “With tears in his eyes, he just was saying, ‘All my dreams are being washed away right now.'”
The silver lining is the community is coming together to help the Rays and the rest of their family clean up the property and rebuild.
Jennifer’s sister’s home is the most damaged. It was knocked off its foundation.
She says if it comes down, Jennifer and John will likely wipe out their home as well.
A GoFundMe has been set up for the family: https://www.gofundme.com/ray-family-assistance