A Silent Stillness—Buried Alive: One Woman’S Remarkable Story of Survival, Hope and Rescue; the Last Survivor of the La Conchita Landslide

By Diane Metivier-Hart

On Monday, January 10, 2005, it took just eight seconds for fifty-six-year-old nurse Diane Hart to be buried alive while in her home during the La Conchita landslide. Buried thirty feet under the mountain and covered by rocks, mud, and the tangled debris of her displaced home, she struggles to survive with only a two-by-two-foot airspace with collapsed lungs and multiple broken bones. While entombed, she reflects on her lifewhat led her to this place in time and whether she has made a positive impact on others. After an out-of-body experience, she finds contentment and peace, whether she lives or dies. Motivated by the desire to see her grandchildren grow up and to see her family again, she finds the strength to stay alive while rescuers desperately search for her. After facing death and passing through judgment from God, she could not leave her family nowa family in crisis.

Eight seconds is all it took for the entire mountain to come down and destroy twenty-seven homes, kill ten people, and injure eight more. A Silent Stillness tells the inspiring story of her faith, hope, and survival after losing everything she ownsincluding her healthand being trapped deep beneath the rubble for four and a half hours.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524579463

Diane Metivier-Hart

Diane is a contributor to a #1 International Bestseller and Award Winning Book, authored four peer reviewed plastic surgery articles, and held a regular newsletter column. Graduate of CSU Dominguez Hills, Diane spent 45 years in healthcare including hospital operating rooms, 15 years counseling women with breast implants, and trademarked as “Ask Diane” a speaker at conferences. As a survivor, Diane has inspired many to persevere through difficult times and has shared her testimony across the US. She is currently a cosmetic nurse living on the Central Coast of California.

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Copyright © 2017 by Diane Metivier-Hart.

Cover photo: La Conchita Mudslide looking up Santa Barbara St. 1-29-05. Courtesy of Rob Malone

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/07/2017

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1   Me Against The Mountain

Chapter 2   Buried Alive

Chapter 3   Past And Present Collide: A History Of La Conchita

Chapter 4   My Life In La Conchita

Chapter 5   Growing Up East, And Heading West

Chapter 6   Ask Diane

Chapter 7   Silent Stillness

Chapter 8   Survival

Chapter 9   Does Anyone Hear Me?

Chapter 10   Found!

Chapter 11   The Healing Begins

Chapter 12   Surviving

To those who perished:

Charles Womack, fifty-one, artist/musician

Vanessa Bryson, twenty-eight, singer/planned to work for an AIDS program in Seattle

Tony Alvis, fifty-three, horseback riding guide, cat lover, surfer, artist

Michelle Wallet, thirty-seven, baked wedding cakes, mother to Hannah Jade (ten), Raven Violet (six), and Paloma Julie (two)

Patrick Rodreick, forty-seven, grew up in La Conchita since he was ten years old

John Morgan, fifty-six, warned a neighbor that the mountain was coming down, saving his life; grew up in La Conchita

Christina Delgado-Kennedy, forty-five, mother, construction worker

In gratitude to those who risked their lives to save mine and others.

Medal of Valor recipient

Firefighters

Bob Roper

Tom Law

Larry Brister

Darrel Stillwagon

Israel Gutierrez

Bob Schwett

Ryan Matheson

Firefighters - Paramedics

Mark Pina

Joe Williams

Dave Schwartz

Civilians

Bill Harbison

Brett Johnson

FOREWORD

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Back in 2004, I was a member of my high school class’s Fortieth Reunion Committee. We planned mini-reunions throughout the Southern California beach communities in an effort to attract alumni to attend the upcoming reunion.

One of the mini-reunions was set at a beach in Ventura County. As I sat talking with some of the alumni, I saw a woman approach our group. I said out loud to the others, There’s my dancing partner.

I explained to those present that back in our teen years, we both attended teenage dances held at the Bellaire Club in Torrance, California, and that I would ask Diane to dance and we would. Then, when the song ended, she would turn and walk away without spending any time to talk with me. This went on for several months, and I never understood why she would dance with me but not talk with me.

Diane explained that she was then dating one of the boys in the band, and he had told her it was okay for her to dance, but she wasn’t to talk to the boys. We all got a big laugh out of that.

After reuniting with my dancing partner, I discovered what an amazing woman she had become. An accomplished nurse, author, public speaker, and the woman behind Ask Diane, a service she founded and managed for the Mentor Corporation for fifteen years.

On January 10, 2005, I had taken my wife to a hospital for a surgical procedure. As they wheeled her off for the surgery, I entered the waiting room and looked up to the television to see a news report on a Spanish station.

On the screen was a video of a landslide. The video was replayed several times, and then the words La Conchita appeared. I then recognized the location and realized that the landslide traveled right over Diane’s residence.

The visual broadcast of the landslide is forever imprinted on my memory. Several minutes later, I received a cell phone call from a mutual friend of ours asking if I had heard from Diane, and I replied, No.

Both Tom and I continued in vain to reach Diane by phone. It was several hours later that Tom called and told me that Diane had been buried alive, but that she been rescued and was hospitalized in Santa Barbara.

It was several days before Highway 101 was reopened and I could visit her. Lying in her hospital bed, she relived the day of the landslide for me.

I reflect now about how Diane has handled this experience and the strength, stamina, ability to survive, and perseverance she possesses. She is a lifelong friend. Recently we attended another of our high school reunions. It was a wonderful celebration of life and our friendship.

John Metcalf

Detective-III, Supervisor

LAPD, Retired

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Brittney Wright for providing the title to the book while helping me prepare a presentation the year after the landslide.

John Metcalf for writing the foreword of the book.

Carl Stein for the photography and CBS for permission to use his pictures.

Chas Metivier for permission to use his pictures.

My sister Marlene for use of her pictures.

Bruce Osborne for taking the video of me in the emergency room that day and providing permission for use of the photo clips.

Bryanna MacLaury for the many hours of pulling all the material together with me for submission.

Photographer Karen Quincy Loberg of the Ventura County Star Newspaper for permission to use pictures.

Linda St. Marie-Hall for the artist sketch of my position under the mountain.

Rob Malone for permission to use his pictures, providing a fabulous cover for the book.

CHAPTER 1

ME AGAINST THE MOUNTAIN

Most travelers along Highway 101 don’t even realize that our tiny town exists. They drive right past us without looking up toward the mountains, dazzled by the exquisite view of the Pacific Ocean with the sun sparkling off the water, exquisite sunsets, and surfers catching wave after wave. Rincon Point, a famous destination for surfers from around the world and immortalized in the Beach Boys’ hit Surfing Safari, sits just below us.

The town of La Conchita, little shell in Spanish, rises above the road between Ventura and Santa Barbara, which are both twenty minutes away heading north and south. With approximately 200 homes, my community is very much like a family. Some people, like me, have children or grandchildren living in town. My La Conchita family consists of musicians and singers, teachers, nurses, businessmen and people in almost every profession. Many of us live in old beach homes made of wood sitting cozily next to each other along nine blocks of homes over ten short streets at the base of Rincon Mountain, 600 feet above. Several newer two- or three-story homes are scattered throughout.

Our first nine years we enjoyed living in a two-story house on Santa Paula Avenue. Those were the wonderful family years. I loved its 180-degree view of the horizon and sunsets on the ocean, and I cried when we moved. At first, they looked a little out of place with their newness, but we all accepted what’s new and what’s old and saw it as a sign that the town was gaining value in real estate. Most of us have all been inside of each other’s homes at one point or another for a cup of coffee or a party or just a visit, and we keep our doors and windows unlocked. The danger was not with people but with what lurked above, a ticking time bomb. What put me in its path of destruction?

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Our first home in La Conchita.

It is so quiet here, with just the sound of the ocean and the hum of traffic going by on Highway 101; the only businesses are a small market for groceries and a gas station at the entrance to the town. La Conchita is such a unique town full of friends and neighbors. We all treasure the view of the sunsets and the ocean; what a haven and what an undiscovered paradise. This is what brought us here. And because La Conchita is considered an unincorporated town, there are no rules and no police officers to enforce them. You can drink beer, walk dogs, fish, play music, and have campfires on the beach. The lifestyle is casual, and the warm, sunny weather means that we spend most of our time outdoors in our little jewel of a town. I love it here.

Unlike the song that says it never rains in Southern California, it does rain here, and quite a bit. Weather in this part of California is somewhat predictable. There are periods of rain, so it is not always sunny, and we have a rainy season followed by a dry season. And every ten years or so, we endure a rough period of drought when the land and our throats are parched, and then in comes El Niño, and we’re being pummeled with rain. The temperature rarely drops below fifty degrees in the winter, but in the mountains, the temperature can drop to ten to fifteen degrees. The weather near the ocean stays pretty moderate, but here in La Conchita, skies remain overcast through noon until the fog burns away during May, June, and July.

Our summer comes in August and September. There’s always a breeze by the coast, and when the Santa Ana winds roar through from the desert, we head into fire season, when the dry brush is ignited by downed electrical lines and people, accidentally or intentionally. The hot Santa Ana winds can accelerate the heat and efforts to contain the fires. You can see the smoke on the horizon, and you hope and pray that everyone in that area is safe. And there’s the potential for landslides, rivers of mud tumbling down after heavy rains soak through the burnt, barren ground, making the land unstable. There’s always an element of danger lurking that is due to the unpredictability of nature.

I remember that day in January as if it were yesterday. Events of that day almost killed me, and