'I can't believe I'm still alive': Highway 7 mudslide survivor recalls frightening events

Vancouver -

Sang Le is still processing the tense moments she and her friends endured last Sunday night.

The 22-year-old UBC student and three of her friends were driving home from a weekend in Kelowna, when they were re-routed to Highway 7 after the atmospheric river that pounded B.C. closed all other highways.

Their already-lengthy journey home then took a drastic twist as traffic crawled along the stretch of Highway 7 between Hope and Aggasiz.

"I remember looking up from my phone after changing a song, and seeing a tree in front of my face," said Le.

"The car I was in started tumbling down the hill on our left, and the next thing I know there was water in the car almost up to my neck."

Le's group of four was swept away, along with three other vehicles, as a mudslide crashed down across the highway.

"My friend started pulling me out of the car through the sun roof," she said.

Le says all of their belongings were either destroyed or washed away. Three of them no longer had shoes, and they were left with two jackets between the four of them.

Luckily, one of her friend's cell phones survived, and the group was able to call 911 around 7:30 p.m.

"There was hope, but there were moments where we wondered if we'd be reached or if we were going to die tonight because of hypothermia," Le said.

As the friends waited helplessly to be rescued, Le says they were able to provide their coordinates to local first responders through an app on her friend's phone.

"At around 1:30 a.m. we were rescued by the heavy urban search and rescue team, and we got to the ambulance around 2 a.m.," she said.

The nine occupants of the four vehicles were all taken to hospital in Chilliwack, somehow escaping with just scrapes and bruises.

"I'm alive, I can't believe I'm still alive," Le said.

"A lot of it just made me reflect on what's important in my life."