Washington wildfire’s path turns into mudslides with rainfall
Washington wildfire’s path turns into mudslides with rainfall
23 August 2014
published by www.theday.com
USA — Rain in Washington state unleashed mudslides on land left bare by wildfires, washing down hillsides, damaging homes and closing highways.
There were no reports of injuries from Thursday night’s mudslides, but specifics were hard to come by because some of the phone and radio towers that serve the remote north-central area of the state were knocked out in summer wildfires.
Multiple slides occurred overnight on two highways that marooned five to 12 vehicles, officials said. Troopers and sheriff’s deputies worked late Thursday night to get the people out.
North of the town of Carlton, mudslides knocked a house off its foundation, pushed an occupied vehicle into a creek, trapped a dozen vehicles between slides and left a mound of dirt and debris 5 feet thick and 145 feet wide blocking Highway 153, The Wenatchee World reported.
“It was freaky,” Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers told the newspaper. “There was so much water, it was amazing.”
There are at least two slides on Highway 20 in the 30-mile stretch east of Twisp to Okanogan, Transportation Department spokesman Jeff Adamson said. That stretch and an 8-mile section of Highway 153 near Twisp remained closed Friday morning.
Another round of thunderstorms was forecast with a flash flood watch through Friday evening, said National Weather Service meteorologist Steven Van Horn.
The Wenatchee World reported that some people whose homes survived the largest wildfire in state history this summer had damage from the mudslides. The Carlton Complex of fires burned more than 400 square miles, and 500 firefighters were still mopping up.
“This flooding is in the areas that were burned,” Adamson said. “It brings down rocks, mud and water.”
More rain and mudslide threats will prolong the highway closures, he said.
“If you’ve got an unstable slope, you just have to pull the crew and wait until tomorrow,” Adamson said.
About an inch of rain fell in an hour at about 7 p.m. Thursday around Twisp, Van Horn said, and the potential for similarly wet storms continued Friday.
Residents say they’re feeling disheartened.
“It’s like another nail in the coffin,” Carlton General Store owner Jeff Lyman told the newspaper. “It’s pretty bad down here right now.”
Maggie Garrett, who lives on Benson Creek, described fences torn down and deep channels carved through driveways and backyards.
“It was literally like a river running through here,” she said. “And now, everything’s 6 inches under mud.”
