Oso Brave, Oso Strong
During a football game against East Side Catholic, Brett Deberry (left) and Joe Colter (right) walked out onto the AHS football field to give Jonielle Spillers a frame of her son’s jersey, Jojo Mangual, who was one of the deceased victims in the mudslide.
It has been a year now, and yet it seems like it only happened yesterday. March 22nd will have a special place in the hearts of Oso community members for years to come, as well as the countless amounts of people who were affected by the tragedy in one way or another.
Just this past Sunday, a memorial service was held for the Oso mudslide tragedy. Hundreds gathered on Highway 530 to commemorate those who were lost. Part of Highway 530 was shut down for the memorial service, where a bell rang for each of the 43 victims.
Several days after the mudslide occurred, I remembered being on a band trip in Portland, Oregon. At one point during the trip, we were standing on a tall building that looked over a part of the city. It was rainy, with a gray dismal overcast. At approximately 10:37 a.m. there was a moment of silence throughout the entire city for those who were lost.
When the tragedy actually occurred, news of it was heard everywhere. People from across the country began to call those few family members and friends who lived near Oso, hoping they were safe and sound and weren’t injured. News of the mudslide was heard worldwide. “The day the slide happened, my mom received phone calls from her brother and sister in the Philippines, and another brother in Ireland”, Chris Serica ’15 said. “They were very worried because they didn’t know the relative location of the landslide to where we live. All they saw on the news was that it happened near Arlington.”
Probably a deeper heavier loss was the deaths of four Spillers family members. Husband and father, Billy Spillers, 30, died in the mudslide along with daughters Kaylee, 5, Brooke, 2, and 13-year-old stepson Jose “Jojo” Magual. The only surviving child of the Spillers was Jacob, 4, who was rescued by a helicopter. Wife and mother Jonielle Spillers was outside of the house during that time and wasn’t injured.
Washington legislation are now moving forward to pass a bill so that statewide fire-fighting resources can be mobilized for disasters such as the Oso mudslide.
If Oso community members have shown anything for the one-year anniversary, it is that Oso is graceful against an unfortunate catastrophe.
