The old ranch sits on the left, along the highway about 1/8th down from the top of this image. Its fairly rural and the community very close knit. In the center of the horizon, a bit on right hand side, you can see the "hole" in the side of the mountain that wiped out 40 homes below it.

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I used to lease Renee's 50 acres for my horses. The 160 year old barn has 10 foot diameter timbers, built by the Higgen's; homesteaders from back east and for whom the mountain is named.

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My old ranch (the one circled in red), was flooded when the mudslide barricaded the Stillaguamish River between two mountain saddles, leaving the water no place to go. There were about 40 homes under the slide area.

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Please note that none of these images are my own, but were taken off the internet. 

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It's so hard to realise these were my old neighbors and not feel unrealistically numb or helpless.

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The little ranch in the two previous pics sits half way down on the left hand side.

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My son John's girlfriend Jamie, lived here back in the day. I believe her folks still lived there.

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Property belonging to the Youngs, that adjoined the old ranch on the westside.

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This one broke me up. So sad!!!

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A place where everyone knew everyone, and we helped raise eachothers families. This was our little bit of heaven in the wilds of the Cascade Mountains. Hard not to let that overwhelming feeling of helplessness take over while looking at these images of the hills my family once lived and breathed in (the old ranch is the one circled in red). So many dear neighbors (friends!) and their families missing. Please keep them in your prayers.

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Playmate to my kids when growing up, shy quiet daughter of our neighbor and friend, Summer was a dear part of my family in that special way found in small communities. She grew up in a large family, the fifth in a line of 13 close-knit kids. She was driving on Highway 530 to a horseshoeing appointment when the mudslide struck her car. Desperately looking for her, her brother Dayn is the one who finally found and recovered Summer's body from her subaru, which was under four feet of mud. Just a week shy of her 37th birthday, Summer was the very kind of person who, if she wasn’t in the mudslide, would have been up to her waist digging and looking for survivors. Such a tragic loss.

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http://www.yakimaherald.com/photosandvideos/statephotos/2042208-8/worst-fears-move-closer-to-reality-for-families
Yakima News item:

DARRINGTON, Wash. — Summer Raffo’s family knows she’s buried somewhere amid a milewide swamp of shattered homes and broken lives.

On Saturday, the 36-year-old Raffo was driving on Highway 530 from Darrington to a horseshoeing appointment in Ryan Falls east of Arlington at the time when a hillside broke free, inundating everything in its path.

Raffo’s family hasn’t heard from her since.

Her relatives rushed to the scene and broke past barricades along with several other families desperate to find loved ones in the muck.

All they found was wreckage, mud and unmistakable signs of death.

”You can’t imagine the devastation until you see it yourself,” said Dayn Brunner, 42, Raffo’s brother. “There were bodies everywhere, cars cut in half.”

For more than five hours, Raffo’s brothers, nephews, sister and friends waded more than waist-deep into the thick, unstable mud.

Raffo’s sister, 16-year-old Brittney Smith, fell into a puddle of blood as she slowly inched toward an area where she heard girls screaming, Brunner said.

Only when search-and-rescue crews threatened to arrest Raffo’s family did they finally retreat from the scene and head back to Darrington.

“You just want to keep on moving every log yourself until you find her,” Brunner said Sunday after a community meeting in Darrington.

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