Engineers to survey mudslide-hit La Mercy home

When Newswatch arrived on scene, we found two TLB’s and multiple workers with shovels trying to remove loads of thick mud that had slid down an embankment, building momentum and hitting the home of the Cooper Family.

At the time, Natalie Cooper, who is two months pregnant, and her mother, Saroj Naidoo, were in the home and were subsequently blocked in from all slides with the mud.

Cooper called her husband, Matthew, who had left for work and who frantically rushed back to his family to find them stuck on the top level of the two-storey home.

Various rescue crews came in an attempt to get the woman and her mother out of the home safely.

Cooper said that when he entered the home, flowing mud and water filled to his knees, adding that he was then concerned that the house could possibly collapse with them inside.

Shortly after arriving, rescue members managed to get all occupants safely out of the home.

Cooper has told Newswatch that he and his family had been living in the home for the last three-and-a-half years and that they would need to stay somewhere else now as they feared for their safety.

Meanwhile, clean up operations are currently continuing outside the home.

The mud is so thick that one could not make it across on foot.