QUILCENE — The waiting has partially ended for Tamara Lenzen after she learned that her sister-in-law and her grand-niece’s fiance died in the March 22 Oso mudslide.
But as of Monday afternoon, the Quilcene resident had yet to learn the fate of her brother, Thom Satterlee, 65, and grand-niece, Delany Webb, 19, who were still among the missing.
Elsewhere on the North Olympic Peninsula, other residents with missing loved ones also waited for news.
Bethany Pentecostal Church Pastor Omer Vigoren of Port Angeles was waiting Monday to learn the whereabouts of his son-in-law, Ron deQuilletes of Bothell.
The 52-year-old electrician was working on a house in the path of the sliding wall of mud.
Lenzen, 55, said she learned in two separate phone calls Saturday morning that the bodies of her sister-in-law, Marcy Satterlee, 61, and Webb’s fiance, Alan Bejvl, 21, had been identified by authorities.
Satterlee was found by a neighbor of the Satterlees who was digging through the mud looking for survivors.
“Every time I start talking about it for too long or see their pictures, I cry, and I keep praying,” Lenzen said.
“There’s not a whole lot we can do.
“Until it’s confirmed, you have a denial.
“Once you find out about it, it hurts that much worse because now, it’s real,” she said.
“It gives you the closure in that you know that they are gone, and you have to go on without them, but until you have all your family members, there’s always a glimmer of hope and prayer that there might be the chance that someone could be found alive.”
Vigoren, 78, visited his daughter, La Rae deQuilletes, 51, on Saturday.
“They are still holding out hopes that [Ron deQuilletes] is still alive,” Vigoren said Monday.
“They are hoping to at least find his body.
“They are hoping to find the body so they can have a little closure to this whole deal.”
Vigoren said his Sunday service included a congregation member’s prayer for the victims and emergency personnel in Oso, including 300 search-and-rescue workers under the command of Larry Nickey, 55, of Port Angeles.
The Olympic National Park fire management officer is in charge of search-and-rescue efforts through next week.
Nickey said last week that rescuers are wary of potential future slides and existing hazardous conditions.
They include punctured propane tanks, exposed pesticides, spilled gasoline and ruptured septic tanks.
“Human waste is spread all over the area,” Nickey said.
The 300 personnel Nickey has command over include Capt. Bryan Swanberg of Sequim-area Clallam County Fire District No. 3, which is headquartered about 100 miles from the mudslide’s devastation.
Assistant Fire District No. 3 Chief Ben Andrews was making the trip Monday to the unincorporated town of about 180 northeast of Seattle, fire district spokesman Patrick Young said.
Capts. Derrell Sharp, Chris Turner and Marc Lawson returned from Oso on Saturday.
“There’s a possibility we may send other officers or firefighters throughout the duration to get training to meet [Federal Emergency Management Agency] requirements for classes they just finished,” Young said.
Lenzen said she was encouraged about the chances of her brother and grand-niece still being alive after she saw TV footage of a rescuer holding a rabbit that had been pulled from the mud.
“They did have a miracle,” she said.
“Showing that this bunny rabbit made it says there’s a chance that others can be alive,” she said.
“That has to give you some hope, because a rabbit is a very small creature, and they found him or her or whatever it is, so there’s always that chance that someone else could be found alive.”
Lenzen said authorities revealed little about where the bodies of her sister-in-law and grand-niece’s fiance were found.
“They are keeping pretty tight-lipped on everything,” she said, adding that rescuers are finding body parts, making it difficult to identify victims.
The Satterlees have two grown children who did not live in Oso: Nichole, 39, and Andrea, 35.
Ron and La Rae deQuilletes, a 1980 graduate of Port Angeles High School, have three grown children and a teenage girl: daughters Ashlee, 29, and Allyn 27; a son, Arie, 23, and, Audra, 16.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
