Million-dollar property becomes storm casualty

By Keri Brenner | The Olympian • Published December 15, 2007

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OLYMPIA – Before he put his $1 million, 2,600-square-foot waterfront "dream house" on the market last summer, Bob Hyde spent $250,000 on new hardwood floors, kitchen tile, a new balcony and a paint job.

Nonetheless, the Sunset Beach Drive Northwest showplace, filled with 18th and 19th century antiques, four bedrooms and three baths and with its own Eld Inlet pier on 146 feet of bay side frontage, failed to attract any offers.

Hyde, 61, a retired antiques dealer and writer, let the listing expire Nov. 15, while keeping the home for sale on a Web site.

But the morning of Dec. 3, when Hyde awoke after a night of heavy rain, he found his investment slipping away into the bay.

Mud sliding on the hillside underneath his home cracked the foundation, knocked out the water system and pump, and buckled the driveway.

"It's shocking, numbing, unreal," said Hyde, whose home was immediately condemned by Thurston County engineering inspectors as too dangerous to occupy. "How do you react to something like this?"

Like scores of other flood victims in the county, he is hoping a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster declaration for individual aid will come to give him some reimbursement for his losses. Hyde said he had homeowner's and earthquake insurance, but neither covers landslides. "Compared to what else is going on with people — flooding, forest fires — I guess I'm lucky and blessed that my pets got out, and I got out," said Hyde, who removed his furniture, antiques and appliances as well as his two cats, a bird — and himself.

"I'm just glad he didn't wake up under water and is still talking to us," said Robert Jean, Hyde's contractor and friend who gave Hyde a place to stay and is helping him remove whatever else is salvageable.

FEMA officials toured the county's flood-affected areas — including Hyde's home — on Thursday but there is no word yet on the individual assistance declaration for the county.

FEMA has granted individual home and business assistance in Lewis and Grays Harbor counties.