After mudslide, nothing could keep teen from his dad’s side

DARRINGTON — Simple sounds — the snap of a pencil, a drip in the sink — take Riley Brunner back a year to a wet wasteland of massive gray dunes and ravaged homes.

That is what the debris fields west of town seemed like to him: a vast desert of despair.

At 16, and 130 pounds soaking wet, Riley was a Darrington High School junior and one of the youngest searchers after the March 22 Oso mudslide.

That first afternoon, he tromped through the mire alongside his dad, Dayn, and younger brother, Zack, looking for their Aunt Summer and signs of her blue Subaru.

To the north, the broken hillside groaned, dropping giant chunks of earth hundreds of feet below. The echoes thundered across the valley. The search party could feel the vibrations a mile away.

Dayn thinks today about the difference seven seconds might have made.

The calculation comes from experts who studied the slide’s trajectory lines after his sister’s car was finally unearthed. Had Summer Raffo been seven seconds earlier or seven seconds later, she might have survived. Summer, 36, was on her way to Trafton for one of her side jobs trimming horse hoofs. She was caught in the hardest-hit stretch of Highway 530. Lumps of uprooted asphalt were carried more than 400 feet.

Of the 43 people to die, only she was inside a car.

Dayn can’t drive past that spot at 50 mph. He’ll go 35, 40 tops. Often, he imagines how it used to look with trees and homes and familiar shadows.

There are those, including family and federal emergency workers, who tried to stop Riley from joining the search. They questioned Dayn for allowing it.

A year later, the father and son stand by the decision.

“I couldn’t shed the guy,” Dayn said. “He was my rock. He was my support. He was my reality check. I know it wasn’t normal but none of the stuff down there was normal.”

Riley doesn’t look back at the search in terms of days or discoveries. Instead, he most remembers the bonding moments with his dad.

Three stand out.

The first occurred the afternoon of the slide. Summer’s mom, Rae Smith, immediately feared the worst. Calls to Summer’s cellphone went unanswered. She never made it to Trafton. Rae told Dayn: Find Summer.

As Dayn drove his pickup west toward the slide, he told his sons that Aunt Summer might be dead.

Riley bristled. He yelled.

“You have to be strong right now,” the boy told him. “You have to show us how to be strong in these moments, Dad.”

And then they went in.

The second moment that stands out in Riley’s memory is when search organizers tried to turn him away. Riley paced about the fire hall, fighting back tears. His father met privately in a conference room with some people in charge.

Dayn explained that he and his son were a team. Together, they brought knowledge. By then, they’d already been to the center of the slide. Either Riley’s going with me or I’m not going, he told them.

Riley was cleared to go.

“I still don’t know what card my dad pulled,” he said.

The fifth day after the slide brought the father and son closer still.

A heavy rain had fallen, unearthing a tiny blue gleam. Summer’s Subaru.

Dayn got the word from Raffo’s friend, Rhonda Cook, who also was hunting for her.

He and Riley made their way over and joined others digging for Summer. Summer’s hands were still on the steering wheel, solace to Dayn that her death was quick and she didn’t suffer.

The father and son were given space.

For the first time since the search began, Riley saw his father cry.

Dayn fell to his knees, apologizing to Summer that it had taken so long to find her.

Riley knelt next to his dad and put his arms around him.

“She knows how hard you tried,” he said.

They took the next day off to spend with family, waking up at 4:30 the following morning to head back into the debris fields.

There they bumped into John Hadaway, whose brother, Steven, hadn’t been found.

“Why are you still here?” Hadaway asked.

“We have to get everybody out,” Dayn told him.

Hadaway began to cry.

“You stole my heart,” he said.

Dayn spent 39 days in the mud; Riley, the better part of two weeks, including his spring break.

Dayn is thankful to everyone who helped in the search and especially is proud of his community. The outcome — all 43 of the missing found during a four-month span — is remarkable to him.

“I think people are realizing we drew together and were strong in a way we have never been before,” he said. “We did the impossible.”

These days, Dayn stays in touch with other families affected by the slide.

He looks forward to the day the county opens a memorial park in the slide zone. That will ensure Summer and the others are not forgotten. He wants a place to go for quiet contemplation.

Riley has grown five inches from a year ago. He’s a senior and recently finished his high school basketball season. He’s planning to attend community college.The father and son are finishing an oak cabinet in the high school woodshop. It will end up in the Darrington Fire Hall and display relics salvaged from the mud.

Behind the glass will be a section of the Steelhead Haven sign, a local landmark of sorts. It once hung from the bank of mailboxes in a neighborhood that no longer exists. There will be patches from police and fire departments that helped in the recovery and a mud-smeared Darrington Fire District sign shorn from its wooden post by the slide.

Perhaps, too, there will be room for Summer’s horse-shoeing hammer. It was found in her car.

Riley doesn’t dwell on the bodies he saw in the debris field or the sadness he witnessed.

Mainly, he thinks about the time with his dad.

“Family comes before everything,” he said. “I wasn’t going to let my dad go in there alone. My dad has always been my best friend. It’s almost like you think you can’t get any closer to someone and then you just love them even more.”

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett to welcome new CEO

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.