A young woman pulled from the wreckage of March’s deadly mudslide in Washington state is speaking out for the first time.
From her Seattle hospital room, 22-year-old Amanda Skorjanc can still visualize mud and debris rushing toward her and her infant son.
“I looked out our front door and it was like a movie,” Skorjanc said. “Houses were exploding and the next thing I remember, the next thing I see is the neighbor’s chimney coming into our front door.”
Skorjanc was home with her 5-month-old son that Saturday morning. She said all she could do was hold on to him, wait for the earth to stop moving and pray.
“I know that God was with us because as it was going I cried out to him and I said, ‘Please save us,'” she recalled.
Her home slid about 600 feet before coming to a stop. Skorjanc and her son were trapped but a pocket had formed around her. She found herself cushioned by her broken couch and recliner.
Still, she’d been severely injured. Skorjanc distracted herself from the pain by praying and comforting her small son.
Finally, she heard sirens. Rescuers were able to take her son from her arms and then use a chainsaw to free her from the debris.
Today, Skorjanc and her son are healing from their physical injuries. He suffered a fractured skull, and she had two crushed ankles, a fractured arm and several injuries to her face.
The emotional wounds, however, will take much longer to heal.
“Oso is home,” Skorjanc said. “But I’ll never go back.”
