Did you read about this poor man's family in your local paper?
M
Man's frantic search for family in Calif. mudslide ends in grief
Greg Risling
Associated Press
Jan. 12, 2005 02:30 PM
LA CONCHITA, Calif. - Jimmie Wallet moved to this oceanside town with his wife and four daughters in search of an easier life. On Wednesday, he identified the bodies of all but one child - pulled from the tangle of homes smashed by tons of liquid earth that rumbled down from the bluff above.
No one lost more than Wallet in the mudslide, which has killed at least 10 people. And, driven by the frantic hope of finding his family, no one fought more to claw through the debris and help pull out survivors.
Eventually he had to stop digging and waited, trying to be optimistic, sleep deprived and taking drags from a cigarette as friends stopped by to embrace him. advertisement
Early Wednesday morning, after 36 hours, his wait ended.
His wife Mechelle was the first to be found. Around 2 a.m. Wednesday a group of firefighters and several of Wallet's friends carried her to the makeshift morgue at the town's gas station.
Wallet went inside and identified her, then returned to the porch of a peach stucco house where he had been staying, put up his feet and sat without a word.
Two hours later, his youngest daughter, 2-year-old Paloma, was removed on a stretcher. Her older sister Raven, 6, was next, soon followed by 10-year-old Hannah.
The three girls were found next to each other, apparently sitting on a couch when the slide broke apart their house, pushed it for about 100 yards and covered it with about six feet of muck.
"They never had a chance to get out," said Scott Hall, a battalion chief with Ventura County Fire Department. "It appeared they were ... unaware of the slide."
Wallet's fourth daughter, a 16-year-old, had been in the nearby county seat of Ventura when the it happened.
In interviews with the Associated Press before his family was found, Wallet said he came to this beach town about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles to "escape" Ventura.
Starting six months ago his family began living in a house of 10 people, including Charles Womack, a 51-year-old musician who also was killed. Wallet, a 37-year-old construction worker whose thick dreadlocks crown a lean frame, would play bass as they hung out on an old bus with a rooftop patio.
Residents of La Conchita described an attentive father who sang with his kids, took them to the Pacific Ocean beach and sometimes walked about town with Hannah on his shoulders.
"They were incredibly beautiful children. They had these sparkling, intelligent, deeply soulful eyes. Just incredibly loving," said Vera Long, who lived three houses down from the Wallets. "The only comfort I can derive is that they were all together."
Long said Mechelle Wallet didn't work outside the home and described her as "powerful, such a rock."
Jimmie Wallet had been returning from a walk to get some ice cream Monday when days of soaking rain triggered the mudslide. He watched the torrent curve toward his block and ran home, only to find it smothered.
Instinct took over and he began to dig, helping rescue two people. Ventura County fire officials credited him with helping map out likely locations of destroyed homes.
"The most frustrating part was that he couldn't do more," said Ventura County Fire Capt. Conrad Quintana.
When Wallet returned late Monday night with six friends, rescue workers let them dig five hours in the rain around where they thought the family might be.
"See that pile? My house is spread throughout it, but I know that's where they are," Wallet said at the time, his face, shirt and shoes caked with mud. "I hope everything is all right."
In the next breath, he acknowledged he was no longer hearing sounds from beneath the debris.
After leaving to rest Tuesday morning, Wallet returned to dig but was confronted after he crossed police lines - rescue workers had changed shifts and didn't recognize him, the sheriff's department said. Wallet was surprised by being handcuffed and started yelling, but was later released him after authorities realized who he was.
That frustrated, angry Wallet wasn't the man friends knew.
Engraved over his home's front gate were the words "Music is love" and the house was always full of melodies.
"All he cared about were those girls and his guitar. That's all he needed in life," Long said. "They were good, good people."
---
Associated Press National Writer Pauline Arrillaga contributed to this report.
azcentral.com |
