By Wednesday, however, the rest of the world has moved on. For many, that's a two-day old news story and it might as well have happened a year ago.
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Except for the Godoy's, who lived in that apartment with a deaf son who only felt the explosion as it ripped into their apartment from the garage below. He was able to escape.
"When I came back, I saw everything," said Carmen, in reference to the nothingness that remains of her home. Now, she and Carlos, who emigrated from Guatemala, must start over.
"I think what happened in my house, the roof was very bad. Everything is coming down," said Carmen.
Their situation is so dire that friends and family have begun a GoFundMe page.
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Wednesday afternoon, the family visited the Red Cross in San Francisco, seeking more help.
That agency gave Carmen and Carlos some walk-around emergency money and got them in a motel for a few days.
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"Well, unfortunately, it is fairly common," said caseworker Paul Hamilton, who is helping develop a recovery plan. "What we find in my years is that the people who keep working at it, working, working, working, always succeed."
PG&E, meantime, which owned the gas line, did more work outside the apartment on Wednesday.
"Cause remains under investigation," spokesperson Andrea Menniti texted to ABC7 News. When we asked about tenants, "I know we have taken care of the immediate needs of customers whose apartment units were damaged. That support includes temporary housing and financial assistance."