'It felt like a movie.' Whatcom County couple watched as their house was swept down the river

Mike Khazak has lived along the Nooksack River in the tiny town of Deming, Washington, in Whatcom County for 25 years. Over the years, the river has crept closer to his two-story home and he has fought to keep it back using heavy equipment, rocks, gravel, and logs. That battle came to a dramatic climax last week, when his home was swept down the river, an event captured in a viral video that circulated across the country and around the world.

Khazak and Sarah Hansen talked with KUOW's Kim Malcom about the fateful afternoon and their frantic last moments getting themselves, their dogs, and their goats to safety.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: Mike, you told Cascadia Daily News, “It was surreal, like a movie — all of a sudden it was like, get out, run for your life.” Can you tell us about that moment when the house detached, and the time leading up to it?

Mike Khazak: The water got behind the rocks that protect the land, which is actually a sandbar. I was standing on the front porch, and I saw the rocks just starting to crumble down into the violently running water. I realized that I didn't even have time to get a bag of stuff out of the house before it was too dangerous to go into.

I went out around back and I screamed to her, "It’s time to go, grab whatever bag you have." I was actually trying to throw one last cable with a log around it into the water. Sometimes you always feel like one more shovel of gravel would have kept the flood back or something.

But it was very surreal, because I've been through a few floods living there for 25 years, and I never thought that the water would get past. Being a landscape guy with an excavator and having those abilities, I never thought that it would do that. And once I saw it crumbling, it felt like a movie, because some of those high-action movies these days are just like, one thing after another, and you're jumping on rocks, like it's a video game. And it almost felt like that, you know. That's the best way I can put it. That's what I told everyone else.

Can you tell us a little bit about the day before or just the hours before leading up to it. What were you seeing as the river was getting higher?

Sarah Hansen: Well, I took a video at four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, which was basically 12 hours before everything started to go in. We still had all of our property. The river was very high, but it was pretty similar to what we had in 2021. In my mind, we were going to have some similar things happening that we did in 2021, but I didn't expect anything like what happened 12 hours later. The deck started to go in, and I think the house was on a tilt.

It just sounds literally unbelievable. I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about what it took to make it your home, and what the home meant to you.

Sarah: Mike had lived there for 25 years. I just lived there for almost 10 years. Our dogs were there. Our goats were there.

Mike: We had a cherry orchard. We had six goats, and a big enclosure for them to live in. And we had our dogs there. And, I guess stuff makes your home home, right? Sentimental stuff, artwork.

Sarah: Yeah. In the summertime, I would just race home after work to get there and just to hang out at the river with the dogs. I mean, that was pretty much one of my favorite things to do was to be down at the river in the summer. It's beautiful.

Mike: It's your best friend in the summertime, because people like spend all day trying to get to the river, but in the fall, it's your worst enemy, because it's trying to kill you and take your house.

Were you able to get all the animals out?

Sarah: Yeah, we got the dogs out first. The goats were on a little bit of a higher ground, but by morning time we had a little concern for them. I work for the Whatcom Humane Society. One of our animal control officers came out with a horse trailer, and literally, as we were loading the goats up, the ground underneath their little closure started going.

You know, so much of who we are goes into our homes. I'm imagining just seeing it literally swept down the river in an instant. It's hard to imagine. It's unfathomable for most of us. Is there any way that you're even trying to start to make sense of what's happened in your life in the last week?

Sarah: We've just been inundated with generosity from this community. It's really heartwarming. We have some supporters who are going to let us stay in a house here for a couple of months while we get situated. But there doesn't seem an end in sight. We're obviously not going to get our house back, or that property. People want to give us an Airstream. I can’t wrap my head around, well, where would we even put that? Or where are the goats going to go at this point?

Mike: And, yeah, we're both animal lovers, so like, "Oh, well, just move to an apartment and forget about that." I'm not going to start a life that doesn't include them and just walk away from them because they're my best friends.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.