Owner Watched As Mudslide Quietly Destroyed San Rafael Home

The owner of a San Rafael home demolished by a massive mudslide Tuesday morning compared witnessing his house get leveled to “watching a weird movie.” John Futscher’s family home, built by his father in 1959, had withstood numerous storms for more than half a century before the hill behind it collapsed around 8 a.m. Futscher, 51, the father of two, said he heard the mud start creeping down the hillside early in the morning, but “didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”
The house in the 200 block of Mountain View Avenue in San Rafael was later destroyed, and two homes on either side were evacuated and red-tagged as the mud crept toward them.