SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Surveillance video shows a Logan Heights family’s harrowing escape from Monday's floodwaters.
Cellphone video shot by April Hernandez's boyfriend, Christian, shows water starting to rush into their apartment off Logan Avenue, after 10 a.m. Outside, you can see a submerged car.
“Just trying to rethink every apocalyptic movie I've ever seen,” said Hernandez.
They couple got their 2-year-old daughter, Cielo, and packed a few bags. Because of the water pressure and mud, they couldn't open the front door.
“I started panicking because we have burglar bars,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez headed to the only window without the bars, in the bedroom.
“There was a screen. I knocked it over,” said Hernandez.
Her boyfriend climbed onto the roof, while she stood on a barbecue grill, with her daughter.
“I was pushing her. Her dad trying to pull her up. Then they rolled on the roof,” said Hernandez.
At the other end of the roof were more precarious moments.
Hernandez was still on the roof, her boyfriend on the top of a nearly submerged car, when she spotted a door floating by and told him to grab it.
“I told him to grab that door right now. We’re going to put our daughter on it," said Hernandez.
He did get the door, and then Hernandez had to toss her daughter several inches into her father's arms.
“I felt like if I thought about it, I wouldn’t do it, so I just did it,” said Hernandez. “She was crying, shivering uncontrollably. I felt terrible as a mom, but I was in survival mode.”
Finally off the roof, the couple put Cielo on the door and and floated it through the water and up a hill, half a block, to safety.
Two days later, amid the pain of losing nearly everything, Hernandez discovered the urn containing her father's ashes, wet but undamaged. It was a measure of comfort after a harrowing ordeal.
“It makes me happy, I feel like he was there … and helped me,” said Hernandez.
Gofundme campaigns have been set up to help Hernandez's family and her neighbors.
