A Grateful Family Tells of Its Brush With Tragedy

Carmelo and Teresa Sarabia, still bearing injuries suffered in a killer mudslide, cried Thursday when they told their family’s story of survival and the rescue of their 9-month-old baby who was yanked from her mother’s arms and swept away.

The Sarabias, whose home on Laguna Canyon Road was destroyed in the mudslide Monday night, said they were still in shock, and grateful and amazed that everyone in the family, including an older son and daughter, survived. Two other local residents died in the disaster.

The family--Carmelo, 40, Teresa, 43, Efrain, 20, Ivvone, 19, and baby Tiffany--were in their apartment watching television that evening. The mother said the family had been worried as the powerful storm continued late into the night. At one point, she said, she went outside with her daughter to look at the water cascading from the hill near their apartment. Then, at 11:45, the lights went out.

“I heard an explosion, like the mountain was moving, and I took the baby from the crib,” she said. She clutched Tiffany tightly to her chest with one arm, while she and Carmelo held hands. The couple was still holding hands as the hill began to collapse, and a wall of mud crashed through their apartment.

“I covered Tiffany so the debris and mud would hit me,” Teresa Sarabia said. “ . . . I had her in my arm, but then I went rolling down with her and she was pulled away from me. I ended up near a tree. . . . My mouth was full of mud and I was cleaning it out so I could yell for help for my baby. But I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t scream.”

The parents were trapped in mud a few feet from each other, covered by lumber and debris, helpless to go after the child.

“The baby was crying. I could hear her, but I couldn’t see her,” said Carmelo Sarabia. “ . . . I kept yelling for someone to help us.”

Then Tiffany’s crying stopped, and both parents feared the worst.

A short time later, Gary Segraves, the father of another canyon resident who had come to help, plucked what he thought was a ball of mud from a watery flow and was surprised to see that it was a baby. Segraves handed Tiffany to Todd Tingley, a neighbor of the family, and the child ended up with a group of firefighters, who tended to her before she was sent to a local hospital.

Meanwhile, Efrain said that he and Ivvone had run into the bathroom, where they were trapped by mud for about 30 minutes.

“I didn’t know anything about my parents or the baby. I thought they were dead,” Efrain said.

While she and her brother were being rescued, “we were asking everyone about the baby,” said Ivvone Sarabia.

After their rescue, Efrain Sarabia said he was so overwhelmed by the devastation that “I couldn’t believe that someone had found [Tiffany] alive.”

On Thursday, the only physical sign of Tiffany’s ordeal was a long scratch on her cheek. However, there were also signs that the baby might be traumatized by the ordeal.

“The baby is fine, but there are times when she doesn’t want to eat or play,” said Carmelo Sarabia, who said she was not like that before.

Red Cross officials, who are helping the family with disaster relief, said they also are providing counseling.

The Sarabias called Tiffany’s rescue a miracle and singled out Segraves for special praise.

“My baby would’ve died had it not been for him,” said Teresa Sarabia. “. . . We had nobody to help us. It took firefighters a long time to arrive.”

Tingley, who also was at Red Cross headquarters yesterday while the Sarabias met with the press, said he has become attached to Tiffany. “I’ve kind of adopted her. She’s somebody special to me, now,” he said as he lifted the baby from Teresa Sarabia’s arms.

Teresa and Carmelo Sarabia are still nursing numerous cuts, scrapes and bruises on their legs and faces. One of Teresa Sarabia’s legs is still swollen, and both parents walk slowly and with obvious pain. After their press conference, Efrain Sarabia walked to where Carmelo Sarabia sat and knelt down to tie his father’s shoelaces.

“Is that good, Daddy?” he asked.

The family lost all of their possessions in the mudslide and are struggling to put their lives back together. Red Cross officials have provided them with temporary housing and a few necessities.

“We don’t have anything left. We need everything,” Carmelo Sarabia said.