Community Corner

Flood Files: Residents Tell Their Escape Stories

Ann Schroedel, 68, helped Frank Freitas, her 78-year-old neighbor, escape Thursday's flood, and then received a helping hand from others on the scene.

Last week, when the of hit Capitola, 26 Pacific Cove Mobile Home Park residents were forced to evacuate and seek shelter elsewhere. Five days later, they are still displaced. Fourteen of them have found lodging at the

Two of those 14 are Ann Schroedel, 68, and her neighbor, Frank Freitas, 78. Schroedel and Freitas shared their incredible story with Patch of escaping the first flood.

Frank Freitas, 78: I was in the back room, and I was listening to the Santa Cruz radio station, because basketball was on, instead of Judge Judy. I was there listening to the radio when I heard water. I went out to the door and I looked out and I saw the water coming in. I said ‘Oh, not again,’ because this happened before in the 1980s.

Find out what's happening in Capitola-Soquelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Ann Schroedel, 68: When the flood first occurred, some of the neighbors were really terrified. My next-door neighbor, Frank, came to his front door and was standing in his front doorway, holding onto the sides of the door entry, yelling for help, but no help was coming.

I had called 911 and asked for help. … The 911 operator asked me if anybody was in danger. I said “Yes.” We were going to drown. We were in danger, definitely.

Find out what's happening in Capitola-Soquelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As the water came up and it crested the top step on my front porch, I realized that we were going to have to evacuate ourselves. I had already decided that I would go out my back door, onto my deck, go above the retaining wall, up the hillside, through the brush and get up to the street above.

I told Frank what my plan was, because he asked me how I was going to get out with my dog. He said, “I’ll come and join you.” But he had difficulty. The water had partially washed away his front porch steps, plus he had to come down and go through about 3 feet of water, and it was knocking him over.

Frank Freitas: I had to go in the water to get on her deck. I went really slow to make sure it wasn’t too deep.

Ann Schroedel: He stumbled a few times. He got back to the deck, and I helped pull him up my stairs. We went ahead, and he was a little terrified of going through the brush. We’ve got poison oak and sticker bushes, but we walked along the back retaining wall until we found … a little path up the hill. He didn’t want to go up it, because we were going to have to go through some sticker bushes. I just went ahead of him and said, “We have to.”

Frank Freitas: It was a funny feeling, thinking, “If we stay here, are we going to drown?” I had my surfboard there. I haven’t surfed for a long time. But it was there if I had to use it as a floating device to go down with the water.

Ann Schroedel: We started up the hill, and he fell. A very nice gentleman was at the top, looking over the guardrail from the street, and I called out to him and told him we needed help. He came over the guardrail and came down a few feet, and I kept trying to climb up the hillside. I was sliding on the ivy. All the brush was wet, because it had been raining for hours.

He did come down, and other people came over. Wonderful people just came out of nowhere. They created a human chain because he had no rope. He turned around, and the man above him held his hands, and he said, "Take a hold of my back pockets.” I took a hold of his back pockets, and it worked, because it helped hold me up so I didn’t keep sliding and falling.

They pulled me up first, and then they went down farther to help pick up Frank, because he had fallen. Frank did wonderfully well.


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