WINLOCK, Wash. -- The family of 80-year-old Nathan Hiatt told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News that he disappeared Monday while checking his cellar during the storm.

“He just disappeared,” Elanor Lane, Hiatt’s stepdaughter, said.

Family members said they believe Hiatt may have come over to the bank overlooking Waller Creek to check a drain when a large portion of the hillside washed away, pushing Hiatt into the water.

“But to disappear so fast, and he was 80 years old, very healthy, no problems at all,” Lane said.

“Well if he did go down into water that high, he could be miles down river, many miles,” family member Mike Hilliard said.

Hiatt’s family said it has been frustrated because the Winlock Police Department has been unable to devote much time to search for him and the only people looking for him are his family and friends.

“And realizing a lot of flooding going on and a lot of people have other issues, but this has been put on the wayside. We had some of our own kayaks in the river to look, and we were told we couldn’t do that, but we went ahead and did it anyway,” Lane said.