The massive piles of debris littering communities across the Bay Area are not likely to end soon. We went to Town 'n' Country, Baycrest, and Dana Shores to see how those areas are coming together.
We saw high water lines, cars on tow trucks, and families trying to figure out how to start picking up the pieces.
We met Yuliana Koelig in the front yard of her Baycrest home. She was standing next to her sidewalk, surrounded by feet of debris.
"Everything is soaked. Everything is destroyed," Koelig said. "Both cars are non-functioning, so there is no house, no cars."
Koelig had three braces on her fingers. While trying to close her garage door, she slammed them in and broke three of them. But even still, she is grateful it wasn't worse and for the help of her neighbors.
"We had a neighbor loan us this vehicle. He said, our little girls are away at college. You can have it for a little bit," Koelig said. "I was told that some people had their homes completely taken off the slab. So I know it's not just us; we will pull together and find a way to rebuild."
In Town 'n' Country at the Bay Pointe Condominiums, we watched car after car get loaded onto the backs of tow trucks.
Nancy Herrera was standing next to her BMW, the tow operator loading it up, and water was still in the floorboards.
"The water was just coming, like a river down like that. And it just happened so quickly," Herrera said. "Cars started, lights going off, flashing windshield wipers as the electronics started getting affected by the water rising."
Herrera lives on the second floor. Thankfully, the water didn't get that high, but all of the units on the ground level were flooded.
"I'm very thankful that God's hand was upon us and we were spared. We have our lives. We have our home," Herrera said. "I'm very, very grateful. But to say that it's been a stressful situation, it has, and I never thought I would see something like this in my lifetime. Yeah, I hope we never see it again."
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
