A 78-year-old man who survived the landslide in Washington described how he called out to his wife, Linda, when they were both buried in the mud and debris, encouraging her to dig. But she never replied to his entreaties.
He survived, and she did not.
With his head and face cut up and stitched, Gary “Mac†McPherson described in an interview with KOMO 4 news channel the ordinary moments of quiet companionship that they were enjoying just before the unimaginable happened: The couple was sitting in their living room in reclining chairs, reading the newspaper.
And then:
“There was this horrendous noise. And I looked over one shoulder, and all the trees were going like this,†he said, gesturing with his hands in a circular motion.
My colleagues also reported this week on the story of Mr. McPherson and his rescue.
On Thursday, emergency workers continued to search for any survivors. Sixteen fatalities had been confirmed by early Thursday, but the death toll is expected to climb based on reports from the medical examiner.
Rescuers in this CBS footage described their emotions as they searched, and sometimes found, survivors, such as a 4-year-old boy.
The boy was shown being pulled safely into a helicopter by the Snohomish County rescue team. The Seattle Times wrote a narrative of the rescue of the child, Jacob Spiller. Members of his family are still missing.
Travis Hots, the Snohomish County fire chief, said in a news conference that they are still looking for people alive rather than just on a mission to recover bodies.
“My heart is telling me that I’m not giving up yet. My philosophy is, even if we say that this is just a recovery mission, we are still going at this full steam ahead. In my book, it doesn’t matter. We’re not changing gears. We’re not changing the pace of this,†he said.
“And we’re going to exhaust all options to try to find somebody alive,†Mr. Hots added. “All of these resources that we’ve had here since Saturday, if we just find one more person that’s alive, to me, that’s worth it. That’s worth it. We’re going to continue on.â€
Elisa Jaffe, the KOMO 4 news reporter who interviewed Mr. McPherson, posted a photograph on Twitter of the wreckage from which he had been rescued.
When he was buried, Mr. McPherson said he used an old military technique to gather himself: taking six deep breaths to relax.
“I am having a little problem getting words out,†he said, bent forward in a chair, his head down, as he spoke to the television station after his release from the hospital.
“I kept yelling at Linda to dig,†he said.
He used pieces of wood from his chair, and with one arm free managed to burrow his way out of the wreckage and earth.
“I was all balled up, but this one hand was free and I had a stick,†he said. “So I just kept digging and digging and digging with this stick until I could see a little light and I shoved that sucker up through there. And started waving it back and forth.â€
The movement caught the eyes of rescuers, who used a chainsaw to extract Mr. McPherson from where he was buried. When he was freed, he said he asked about his wife.
“I was asking how come you’re not digging her out,†he said.
Rescuers told him she was dead.
The two had been married for 45 years. Of his heart, he said: “Tears it out.â€
Follow Christine Hauser on Twitter @christineNYT.
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