Mudslide slams down mountain, almost washing away NC home

Watauga County resident Rachel Mosher recorded a mudslide that damaged her home in Sugar Grove. In a one-on-one interview, she shared the terrifying details with WRAL News, providing photos of the aftermath.

“It’s a sheer coincidence that I got the mudslide on camera, because if I had expected there to be anything like that, I would have tried to get to a safer place,” Mosher described.

Mosher said she was in her backyard recording all the water she was seeing, unaware danger was near.

“It’s normally perfectly dry, so I was looking at that,” Mosher said. “There was a stream running down our backyard, and then I look up the hill and see that half the mountainside has come loose and is coming at me.”

The mud raced down a hill with enough force to knock part of the house off its foundation and toss their car onto the roof.

Mosher said she didn’t fully process what was happening.

“A mudslide is the last thing you would ever expect in this area,” she said.

In the video, Mosher can be heard reassuring her husband.

“He heard the slide from inside, and he saw it splash up against the walls of our house,” Mosher said. “He was panicking because he knew I was outside and he thought he had lost me.”

She said her husband came outside and grabbed her, saying, “I thought I’d lost you.”

“My immediate response to him as a wife [was] wanting to tell him it’s okay, we’re safe, you’re safe, I’m safe, the car’s replaceable, but we’re safe,” Mosher said. “That’s the most important thing.”

Mosher said, despite the damage to their car and property, she feels fortunate.

“We still have food, and we’ve got drinking water,” Mosher said. “We still have one of our cars and we’ve got shelter. I know our community as a whole is hurting, especially out on the west side of Boone and in places like Cove Creek and Trade Tennessee. I know there’s people that can’t even get out of their houses to get supplies.”

Although her daughter created a GoFundMe to help pay for repairs, Mosher encourages people to donate to other organizations like Samaritan’s Purse and Wine to Water.

“I would really encourage people to support those because they are firsthand right there, providing that response that people need,” she said. “We’ve all lost something, no one has water or electricity or power or anything like that, but the little everyone does have we’re sharing with each other.”

Mosher said she believes positivity and helping others is the way to make it past this.

“It’s a time for the community to come together and just support each other and love each other and put aside whatever political or social differences,” Mosher said. “Those don’t matter at the end of the day. It’s the humans that are important, and thank God so many of us are safe.”

Mosher said she and her husband have started cleaning up their property, including trees that almost crushed their home.

“We’re going to have to deal with it one way or another, and it’s going to be a lot easier for everyone if we stay positive,” she said. “We’re still alive, we’re safe, we have our health, our family is safe. We’re just thankful for what we do have.”

By calling 211 or visiting nc211.org, families and individuals can obtain free and confidential information on health and human services and resources in their community. People trying to connect with family members can call NC 211 or 1-888-892-1162 if calling from out-of-state. People can also call those numbers to report missing loved ones.