Worst case scenario: John Surdi lost his home in a Bellevue landslide in 2022
Thankfully on Thursday night Mercer Island residents that had been evacuated due to landslide risk created by a broken pipe were allowed to return to their homes.
Ahead of that announcement we talked to a man who lost everything in 2022 after a broken water pipe in Bellevue caused a landslide that destroyed his home.
John Surdi knows all too well what families in Mercer Island had to lose.
Back in January of 2022, Surdi and his wife lost their house to a water main break, turned landslide.
“We didn’t have a warning in our house. When it went down, it was sudden, at 4:30 in the morning,” recalls Surdi.
The Surdi family was forced to evacuate their destroyed home, along with 40 neighbors. The landslide completely uprooted their lives, as it’s now done to a Mercer Island neighborhood.
“I hope all these families get through it without too much damage. I hope they can get back in their homes and because it’s gonna be probably a long process,” says Surdi.
He says it took his neighbors more than a month before they were cleared to return to their homes. And for him, it took nearly two years’ worth of lawsuits before his family was finally compensated for their loss.
It was much more than a house, says Surdi. “Four kids, raising them there. Having everybody over, having parties. Then everything—gone.”
An experience he wouldn’t wish on anyone, telling KIRO 7, it’s a trauma his family is still dealing with.
“I have night terrors. Not as bad as they were. And we’re both still on antidepressants over this,” says Surdi.
