First this happened:
San Miguel County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris White, on his first day on the job, stands next to the debris field above Lawson Hill yesterday, where a huge section of the hillside gave way Saturday night, causing 14 houses in the subdivision to be cordoned off.
From The Daily Planet, May 5th '08
Telluride, Colo. -
Rumbling and churning and knocking down trees, a hillside sheared off and tumbled toward Lawson Hill Saturday night. It didn’t cause any damage to anyone’s property, but people were evacuated, and 14 different houses in the Elk Meadows area were cordoned off by the Sheriff’s Office. Officials feared the slide could slam into the side of houses near the end of Society Drive. San Miguel’s Road and Bridge Department created a temporary drainage yesterday to funnel the runoff from the slide zone into nearby Skunk Creek. Residents were allowed back in Sunday morning, but were ordered out again around noon, as the Sheriff’s Office feared the hillside would heat up and break loose again. Officials said residents would be able to return for good this morning.
The winter’s (possibly) record-breaking snowfall poses problems as the weather heats up and melting snow turns into raging rivers and unstable hillsides. A mudslide in the Ilium valley last week closed a road near Ames, and slides down valley have poured onto the highway.
All day Saturday, the sun beat down on the hillsides and soaked the ground with melting snow, transforming it into a cauldron of loose pudding. The slopes above Lawson weakened and finally cracked at around 5:30 p.m. A mud slab — 20 feet deep in places — broke off and carried a torrent of trees, mud and boulders towards the homes 300 feet below.
“This water is seeping into the ground and then the ground just became saturated. Then gravity just took over,” said Sgt. Mike Wescott of the Sheriff’s Office. “It was roaring pretty good. You [could] hear the mud moving and hear the trees cracking.”
Kathleen Morgan was walking from her house toward Lawson’s trash facility when she heard the boulders crashing against each other in a flinty thunderclap. She wheeled around.
“I watched the whole hill collapse,” she said. “I saw trees come down, literally, just like matches. The trees I saw go down were huge pines — 70 to 80 feet tall.” She walked towards the slide and saw her neighbors investigating the fresh muddy gash. It was 300 feet long, 120 feet wide, and 20 feet deep in places. Boulders falling, splintered trees splayed against each other, rivulets of mud spilling toward the road, and runoff water forming a tiny new creek over the slide path. Morgan called the police, and they decided to evacuate the homes in the Elk Meadows section to the west of Skunk Creek.
SourceGas and San Miguel Power shut off the electricity and gas for the night, but the electricity was turned on yesterday morning so people’s food wouldn’t spoil in their freezers. Residents were allowed to gather food, clothes and anything else they might need during their exile.
“That’s one of the joys of living here — there’s always something that can get you,” Wescott said.
After grabbing some belongings, most people spent Saturday night with family or friends; one family didn’t have anyone to lend a room, so a firefighter gave them a condo for the night. Elizabeth “Eli” Burke pulled her computers and work tools out of the house — she’s a painter — and moved furniture from the bottom floor to an upper floor, in case the houses flood.
“I’m planning for the worst,” she said. She said she never expected to see her hillside slide. “The mountains are moving,” Burke said. “It’s kinda crazy.”
Linda Lyon was in her home when she heard the rock slide coming. “It’s kind of horrifying,” she said. She, too, was staying with a friend, waiting to see if the mountains stop moving.
Gravity can be dangerous folks. As I get older, it is apparent that mostly everything wants to move towards the center of the Earth. Now while I believe that moving towards the center is good for us in general, one could also call it "taking the middle path", this gravity lark is a different matter altogether. There is an argument to be made that it's what actually kills us in the end, or at least that it is what makes us bald. Well, actually there's not much argument for that because surely then everyone would go bald at the same rate... I digress...
But it is often I have thought that as one gets older and smaller and more hunched over, our old pal gravity has had a hand in our slow gravitation, as it were, towards the molten core. Closer to the center of the Earth as though it is under the crust and mantle that our eventual salvation is to be found, and not in the other direction, toward the Celestial Heavens.
I am planning a protest. I will make t-shirts and signs that say "Down With Gravity", we will march on the physicists, will you join me?
We are well anyhow, and the mudslide did not threaten our place, but here in our tight knit community we knew all of the affected folks. They are all well too, thanks for asking, but it remains to be seen how it goes for them. The mud & rocks & trees (oh my) still might decide to continue their downward trend, it depends on how much precipitation we get (it snowed all day today)and on whether or not Mr. gravity will continue with his folly.
A report of Rowan's 6th birthday party will follow soon, stay tuned...