April 11, 2016 - ALASKA - After a period of heavy rains, about 200 million metric tons of rock
tumbled down a remote Southeast Alaska mountain. The massive landslide,
lasting about 60 seconds, occurred on October 17, 2015, and landed on
the toe of Tyndall Glacier and into Taan Fiord in Icy Bay, Alaska.
The event generated a local megatsunami that sheared trees more
than 152.4 meters (500 feet) up on a peninsula within the fiord. It was
big enough to register at the nearest tidal gauge 155 km (96.3 miles)
away. For comparison, the 2011 tsunami in Japan reached about 39.6
meters (130 feet) above sea level.
This event, now estimated as the biggest nonvolcanic landslide, by volume, in North America's written history, was registered
by special seismograms monitored by the Global CMT Project at
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory whose seismologists Göran Ekström and
Colin Stark have invented a new technique that uses seismic waves to
detect landslides in remote areas where they might otherwise go
unrecorded.
Since winter snows hid the damage generated by the tsunami it
took several months to see the extent of the damage. Upon hearing a
report from a pilot colleague that the landslide area of Icy Bay was
free of snow, glaciologist Chris Larsen of the University of Alaska
Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute flew there in his Cessna 180. Larsen
used a camera system mounted in his plane to make a high-resolution map
of the landslide and the path of the megatsunami.
"It almost blows away everything in the historical record except for Lituya Bay," Larsen said. "It's really a unique event to have a tsunami 100 meters (328 feet) high.If it was September or any time in the summer, the wave could have gotten a fishing boat or two.
"The
Lituya Bay landslide, Larsen referred to, occurred in 1958 after a
powerful M8.0 earthquake. The wave that followed ripped spruce from 518 m
(1 700 feet) up a mountain slope and left trimlines in the bay that are
visible today.
Icy Bay and places like it will have more landslides as time goes on,
Larsen said. Warmer temperatures melt more glacial ice that buttress
hillsides. When the ice melts, oversteepened slopes will fail. Sometimes
it takes a big rain or an earthquake to shake them down.
"These megatsunamis are infrequent in the historical record but will most likely increase," Larsen added. - The Watchers.
Two buildings that comprise a Yonkers apartment complex were evacuated
Wednesday after an apparent mudslide related to the weather that has
afflicted the region over the past few weeks, authorities say.
March 11, 2015 - NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - Two high-rise buildings were evacuated in Yonkers Wednesday after a hillside collapsed with neighbors directly in the path.
As CBS2’s Tony Aiello reported, investigators late Wednesday afternoon were trying to determine whether more mud would come tumbling down.
The mudslide happened at the site of the Old Croton Aqueduct, behind the buildings located at 95 and 97 Walsh Rd., fire officials said. Many tons of mud came down with a rumble and a roar.
“The mud is coming from a hill behind these buildings, it’s a large hill and there’s about eight feet of mud behind the buildings,” Yonkers Fire Department Chief Thomas Fitzpatrick told 1010 WINS. “With the saturation and snow amounts and now the higher temperatures there is a potential for further mudslides.”
Some senior citizens will be staying in shelters after a mudslide threatened their senior living home.
The mudslide shocked residents of the William Walsh Houses out of their quiet Wednesday afternoon routine.
“You couldn’t even get out the back door,” said resident Norah Mills. “It sounded like a train running across the building.”
“(It looked) like the whole mountain came down,” said resident Willie Johnson. “I felt the building shake. I thought it was an earthquake.”
WATCH: Mudslide forces evacuation of two high-rise buildings in Yonkers.
A wall that was constructed 150 years ago to support the Old Croton Aqueduct gave way. A section at least 24 feet wide spilled earth down the hill and against the rear of the 95 Walsh Road building.
About 4 to 6 feet of mud blocked the door of the lobby and might have compromised the structural integrity, fire officials said.
“We saw that mud was encroaching upon the main lobby way, so we began a shoring operation to maintain the integrity of the lobby; made sure the doors were closed and did not fill with mud so we could safely evacuate the residents of the building,” said Yonkers fire Commissioner John Darcy.
As CBS2’s Aiello reported, engineers were evaluating the damage on Wednesday night, and trying to determine how to shore up the remaining stone wall.
The fire department released a photo of the shoring system, composed of wooden frame on the floor that was being used to ensure that the rear wall of the building stays secure.
The buildings also evacuated as a precautionary measure, Fitzpatrick told 1010 WINS. Most of the residents are senior citizens and many have mobility issues.
Yonkers police said an Emergency Service Unit METU bus took at least 60 residents to the Police Athletic League building on North Broadway. The American Red Cross was looking out for them there.
“We’re hoping that if they do need to stay out for the evening or longer that most of them will be relocated with family, but if they can’t find alternate housing with family the Office of Emergency Management will find some suitable accommodations for them,” Fitzpatrick said.
Many residents who had to be evacuated were not thrilled.
“Very disruptive, because I’m hungry and I can’t eat,” Johnson said.
No injuries had been reported as of late Wednesday afternoon, police said. It was unclear when residents would be able to return.
Just two weeks ago, the 95 Walsh Road building was evacuated for a carbon monoxide leak. Resident Matthew Petitclair spent five hours in the hospital after breathing that in.
“One has nothing to do with the other, but it’s just bad luck, I guess,” he said. “I feel like I’ve have bad luck this month, you know?”
The buildings were to be assessed by the fire, building and engineering department. Investigators believe a leaky water pipe in the neighborhood uphill from the scene, combined with the melting snow and ice, may have weakened the old retaining wall, WCBS 880’s Peter Haskell reported.
Three factors come together to cause mudslides – loose rock and sediments, a steep slope, and saturated ground, CBS2’s Elise Finch explained.
All those factors were present in Yonkers, with temperatures that have climbed in recent days before peaking at 58 degrees Wednesday, melting snowpack, and steady rain, Finch explained.
Walsh Road was closed between Nepperhan and Palisade avenues due to the mudslide. - CBS New York.
March 11, 2015 - MONTENEGRO
- A landslide which has been happening for several days disrupted
traffic on a section of the road Cetinje-Budva. This is one of the most
frequent roads in Montenegro and the shortest route from the capital
Podgorica to cities on the coast. The copious rains initiated the landslide and the road has already dropped more than five meters.Reconstruction
is not possible to begin until the landslide completely stops. In the
best of circumstances, remediation is expected by the beginning of the
summer tourist season. In the meantime, it is possible to use
alternative paths that are 50 kilometers longer than the damaged route.
Excessive
rainfalls have initiated the landslide which destroyed the main road in
the village Markovići. In the part of the road that the landslides
occur, 100 meters of asphalt have been plunged and opened up cracks
several meters deep. Every day the landslide is getting larger and
larger, and this morning the old road section was moved several dozen
meters from its original location.
The landslide on the highway Cetinje-Budva has expanded by another ten
meters, said Mayor of Budva emergency and rescue Zdravko Šljukić and warned that the ground is still active.The
cracks on the road have become so deep that in some places they are
three meters deep, adding that starting reconstruction works in the
current circumstances is impossible.
President of the
Municipality of Budva Lazar Radjenovic explained that the cracks in the
asphalt had long been observed at the spot where the landslide is
happening now, but the recent heavy rains led to the great damage to the
roadway, adding that it will take "several months" to repair the
damaged section of the road, but it must be completed by the beginning
of the tourist season.
WATCH: Massive landslide in Montenegro.
According to the head of the Directorate
for Transport Savo Paraca, when it comes to remediation it will take
months. "We can not do that so quickly. We must stop the entire hill
skating. I do not know if we will get into the season, but we'll see. We
will do everything in our power to have it ready by the beginning of
the tourist season. Paraca explains that they have to work around the
public procurement process, because in the case of tenders and other
procedures, work would not begin even within the year. - Balkan EU.
March 11, 2015 - WASHINGTON STATE, UNITED STATES
- A landslide that began in December has destroyed a home on an island
north of Seattle and more residents have been told they could be at
risk, scientists said on Monday.
About 20 homes in the
landslide zone on Whidbey Island, a short ferry ride from the mainland,
have received letters encouraging residents to consult engineers to
determine whether a bluff behind their properties was in danger of
giving way, local officials said.
The
landslide began moving in late December, when one home was destroyed.
Two more homes were damaged in February and are at risk of collapse. A
fourth home was leveled on Friday, Island County officials said.
"It's a more active slide year than normal," said Connie Bowers,
assistant engineer for Island County. "If they're full-time residents,
(they) should look into having a geotechnical engineer review the
property behind them for life safety."
Many of the structures
near the landslide zone are vacation homes built on the shore of Puget
Sound, she said, and their owners are encouraged to stay away while the
landslide remains active.
"This is an old slide area. It is unsettled, and they know that," Bowers said. Residents told local broadcaster KIRO that though the landslide was moving slowly, the destruction can be rapid. "This happens really fast, ten seconds and bam this stuff is down," Stacie Burgua said.
A landslide destroyed a home on Whidbey Island on Friday night.
Whidbey
Island, home to about 58,000 people, was formed out of glacial silt and
is one of many areas in Washington state known to be prone to
mudslides,the state Department of Natural Resources said.
Much of the landslide risk is determined by groundwater saturation, said department spokesman Joe Smiley.
In 2013, a landslide on Whidbey Island knocked one home off its
foundation and forced the evacuation of 22 others. The slide also cut
off power and roads to the area.
Last
year, a rain-soaked hillside collapsed near the rural community of Oso,
northeast of Seattle in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, killing
43 people.New video that emerged from the catastrophe
shows waves of mud tumbling into the valley below more than 10 minutes
after the hill gave way. - Reuters.
October 29, 2014 - SRI LANKA - A
landslide in hilly south-central Sri Lanka is believed to have killed
more than 100 people on Wednesday as it buried scores of houses, a
government minister said, and the toll is likely to rise.
The
landslide hit a village in the tea-growing area of Sri Lanka after days
of heavy monsoon rain, with more than 300 people listed as missing.
"More
than 100 people are believed to have died," Disaster Management
Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told Reuters from the disaster site in the
village of Haldummulla, 190 km (120 miles) inland from the capital,
Colombo.
"We have suspended the rescue operations because of
darkness and inclement weather. There is also a threat of further
landslides."
Children who left for school in the morning returned
to find their clay and cement houses had been buried. Nearly 300
children were gathered at a nearby school as night fell amid further
landslide threats.
The Disaster Management Center said 10 bodies
had been found so far, at least 300 people were missing and 150 houses
buried in the village, which lies south of a popular national park.
WATCH: Koslanda landslide in Sri Lanka.
Amaraweera
said the landslide was at least 3 km (2 miles) long. Villagers had been
advised in 2005 and 2012 to move away because of the threat of
landslides, but many did not heed the warning, he said.
"I was
under the rubble and some people took me out ... my mother and aunt have
died," a woman who was being treated for injuries told media.
There
have been a number of landslides since the start of heavy rains in
mid-September resulting in damage to roads, but there had been no
casualties until Wednesday.
Some roads in the central districts of
Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, and Badulla were blocked on Wednesday due to
landslides, limiting public transport.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa tweeted that military heavy machinery had been deployed to speed up search and rescue operations.
The
people living in the affected hilly area are mostly of Indian Tamil
origin, descendants of workers brought to Sri Lanka from South India
under British rule as cheap labor to work on tea, rubber and coffee
plantations. - Reuters.
April 10, 2014 - WASHINGTON STATE, UNITED STATES - The death toll in the massive mudslide that devastated a Washington
town more than two weeks ago has risen to 36, the Snohomish County
Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Wednesday evening.
Searchers work at the scene of a deadly mudslide Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Oso, Wash.
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, Pool)
Detectives
with the Snohomish County sheriff's office were also able to cross
another name off the list of missing from the Oso landslide and it's now
down to 10 people.
Last week, President Barack Obama declared a
major disaster for the damage, which makes programs available to
individuals and businesses affected by the mudslide.
The declaration
also provides help for debris removal and emergency measures such as
barricades, sand bags and safety personnel.
Below are some facts and observations about this still-developing situation.
How Are the Bodies Processed?
When
bodies or remains are found in the mudslide area, crews dig them out
and they are flown by helicopter to a nearby landing pad where they are
readied to move to the medical examiner's office in Everett, about 30
miles from the scene.
Once there, the bodies are moved to a tented area
for decontamination, where they are cleaned in warm water. From there
they are moved to the autopsy room where examiners take fingerprints,
look for signs of dental work and identifying marks such as tattoos.
When that work is complete, remains are moved to a refrigerated area
where they stay until funeral homes make arrangements for burial or
cremation. Why Does It Take So Long to Identify Bodies?
The
process for identifying remains, some of which are partial, is careful
work, especially when trauma is involved, Thiersch said.
"This isn't going into a room and saying, 'This is him,'" he said.
Searchers work at the scene of a deadly mudslide Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Oso, Wash.
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, Pool)
Standing trees and downed trees line the side edge of a massive mudslide
Thursday, March 27, 2014,
that struck Saturday near Darrington, Wash.
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, Pool)
Workers use heavy equipment to clear trees and other debris, Thursday,
March 27, 2014, as the search continued for
victims of the massive
mudslide that struck Saturday near Darrington, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S.
Warren, Pool)
Efforts
to identify using dental work, fingerprints or tattoos, can take time
and if that doesn't work, officials turn to DNA testing. But that works
best in cases in which a close family member can give a sample for
comparison. They've only needed to use DNA testing to identify one of
the slide victims.
At the same time, detectives are working to help
determine identities by using information from families, social media
accounts and belongings from the site. How Many People Are Working There? What Do They Do?
The
regular staff of about 12 at the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's
office has been supported with dozens of professionals from King,
Pierce, Skagit and Kitsap counties and members of the Air National
Guard.
Medical examiners are working with pathologists, dentists and
medical investigators to clean bodies, take fingerprints, and note
tattoos or other distinguishing features. Detectives and other
professionals do online research and call families to determine the
identities of the victims.
How Do Workers Cope in These Difficult Situations?
People
working at the medical examiner's office are doing everything from
calling family members to cleaning bodies and the stress takes a toll.
On Wednesday, a therapy dog named Paddington comforted members of the
Air National Guard and medical investigators.
WATCH: New Problems for Mudslide Rescuers.
A team of county mental health workers was expected to visit the office later this week to meet with workers one-on-one.
Medical
examiner's office deputy director Dennis Peterson said staff has been
so dedicated to the work that he's had to "kick them out" to force them
to rest.
Financial Costs
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says
the mudslide caused about $10 million in damage to homes destroyed in
the slide area and their contents.
He estimates further costs of $32.1
million for search and recovery efforts, and to remove all the debris.
But he says the costs could go higher. - TWC.
April 10, 2014 - WASHINGTON STATE, UNITED STATES - Officials in Washington state said Monday that the death toll from
last month's mudslide in the town of Oso had risen to 33, with all but
three of the bodies identified by the Shohomish County medical
examiner's office.
This photo, taken April 3, shows workers use hand tools next to heavy equipment at the scene of a deadly mudslide in Oso, Wash.AP
The latest name added to the list is Billy L. Spillers, 30, of Arlington. Like the others, he died of multiple blunt force injuries in the March 22 slide that crushed the residential area along the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River about 55 miles northeast of Seattle.
His name had been on the list of missing.
The number of missing on Monday was 12, said Shari Ireton, spokeswoman for the Snohomish County sheriff's office.
However, that figure does not necessarily correlate with the number of dead, said Kelly Stowe, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office. The missing list remains fluid as names are added and removed.
Spillers was a Navy chief petty officer who lived with his wife, Jonielle, and their four children. She was at her nursing job when the landslide hit their house. Spillers' 4-year-old son survived and was rescued by a helicopter.
Spillers' daughter Kaylee, 5, and stepson Jovon Mangual, 13, have been identified among the dead. Two-year-old daughter Brooke is listed among the missing.
So far, more than 220 people have registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, seeking individual assistance, FEMA spokesman David Mace said Monday as he announced the opening of three disaster recovery centers for slide victims.
FEMA workers and state representatives will provide "one-on-one, face-to-face counseling and assistance" at the centers in Arlington, Darrington and at the Oso fire station, Mace said.
As the search continues in the debris for bodies, the Army Corps of Engineers is working on a berm -- a big rock and gravel barrier. That will enable crews to pump water over the berm and drain an area where search teams want to work, said Steve Thomsen, county public works director. Engineers hope to finish the berm in a week.
A forecast of warmer and mostly drier spring weather this week should help. But rain showers Tuesday will cause the river to rise about a foot in the pool formed by the mudslide, the National Weather Service said. That's 2 or 3 feet below the high reached on March 30.
Highly sensitive instruments newly placed on the landslide mass and nearby hillside provide real-time measurement of even tiny earth movements, said Rick LaHusen of the U.S. Geological Survey. So far, scientists have seen "nothing that gives us any concern" for the safety of search crews. - FOX News.
April 09, 2014 - PITTSBURGH, UNITED STATES - A football-field-sized swath tore loose from the face of Mount
Washington early Tuesday morning, sending a torrent of mud and trees
across railroad tracks along West Carson Street and briefly closing the
Duquesne Incline.
Cleanup continued Tuesday on the Mount Washington hillside after a landslide. Darrell Sapp / Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh officials also ordered a precautionary closure of LeMont
restaurant above the slide zone, but an engineer said a visual
inspection found no signs of instability around that structure.
No one was injured, and the main impact of the slide
was disruption of freight traffic along the Norfolk Southern Railway
line. City and railroad crews worked to clear the tracks, a section of
which shifted as the hillside tumbled across it.
At a briefing several hours after the slide, Michael Huss, city public
safety director, said the ground was still moving in the area.
It was left to engineers and safety officers for the railroad to decide
when to resume service, Mr. Huss said. Westbound trains were moving
slowly through the area by early afternoon.
As for LeMont, it was to remain closed until engineers from the city and
those hired by the restaurant determined it was safe. "We're erring on
the side of caution," he said.
The city Bureau of Building Inspection will meet this morning with CEC
Inc. -- civil engineers for LeMont -- to determine if the restaurant can
reopen Thursday, said Sonya Toler, Public Safety Department
spokeswoman.
A landslide
across the railroad tracks above West Carson Street led to a temporary
shut down of the Duquesne Incline and the rail line Tuesday. Darrell Sapp / Post-Gazette
The slide was reported shortly after 4 a.m. by the engineer of a passing
train. The slide area was about 100 yards long and it left a debris
field about 10 feet deep and 30 feet back toward the hillside, city
Operations Director Guy Costa said.
The Duquesne Incline was closed for a time but reopened when officials
determined it was not threatened by the slide. The structure is equipped
with sensors that are designed to detect earth movement, Mr. Huss said.
Conductor Lucille Gabler said one of her co-workers on the night shift
heard a "funny noise" before closing, but the incline was running
normally until shortly before 7 a.m., when someone from the mayor's
office told her they'd have to close. The incline reopened around 9:15
a.m.
The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority checked water and sewer lines
along Grandview Avenue above the slide and found no damage, Mr. Costa
said.
A landslide across the railroad tracks above West Carson Street led to a temporary shut down of the
Duquesne Incline and the rail line this morning. Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette
The slide was typical in that it involved a failure of weak claystone
called "red beds" that were saturated with moisture from recent
rainfall, said Bruce Roth, a geotechnical engineer with GAI Consultants
Inc., the company brought in by the city to inspect the scene. "That is a
common occurrence in Western Pennsylvania," he said.
In addition to visual inspection, the company will examine the history
of the scene and drill to collect soil samples that will be analyzed in a
lab, a process that could take about a month. It will then offer the
city a variety of options for correcting the problem.
"If they run across something that needs to be immediately addressed,
we'll have to address it," Mr. Costa said. "It could be fine. All the
loose stone and shale came down, and we don't have to do anything."
Debris from the slide was on railroad property. Allegheny County
property records show that the city owns the hillside between LeMont and
the railroad line. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
April 02, 2014 - WASHINGTON STATE, UNITED STATES- The
death toll rose to 29 on Wednesday in the landslide more than a week
ago that buried a Washington community as searchers continued the grim
task of looking through the tangled muck for more victims.
March 31, 2014: An American flag hangs from the only cedar post left
standing at the scene
of a deadly mudslide in Oso, Wash. (AP Photo/The
Herald, Sofia Jaramillo, Pool)
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday that one additional victim had been found, though the number of people positively identified remained at 22.
An additional 20 are still listed as missing from the March 22 slide that collapsed a section of a hill and buried the community at Oso, about 55 miles north of Seattle.
On Tuesday, Steve Harris, a supervisor in the search effort, said
workers had refined their search techniques in the last few days and
were able to zero in on areas where bodies may be found.
“In these areas
where we find logs and debris,” he said, “that’s where we’re finding
human remains.”
With
the water receding, rescue workers have been able to extend their
search.
In addition, Mr. Harris said, rescue workers have taken
advantage of tools that have been brought in, including sonar to search
the water and an excavation equipment that has been placed on pontoons.
But he cautioned that “there’s a lot of material out there that very likely won’t be recovered.” - NY Times.
April 01, 2014 - UNITED STATES- The following stories are the latest reports of sinkholes in the United States over the last few days:
Sinkhole Opens Up In Chelmsford And At Other Locations In Massachusetts
Heavy rains were causing flooding and sinkholes in many parts of Massachusetts Sunday.
Flooding prompted local and state police to close a number of roads and
highways Sunday morning. On parts of Memorial Drive near the Longfellow
Bridge, police were warning drivers to be aware of large puddles of
water.
South of Boston, Mass. State Police reported that amps from Route 195
east and westbound were closed to Route 18 due to flooding. Route 18
itself had flooded in New Bedford, and police closed it between Route195
and Route 6, reopening the southbound side at around 12:30 p.m.
In Freetown, the ramp from Chase Road to Route 140 in was closed as well because of flooding.
Route 128 northbound near exits 13 and 14 in
Westwood was closed earlier Sunday morning, and reopened before 9 a.m.
after workers from the Mass. Department of Transportation cleared storm
drains there.
In parts north of Boston, a large sinkhole had opened up on Boston Road
in Chelmsford, causing police to close the road at Brian Road. The hole
opened up where a culvert carries water from a stream underneath the
road. The culvert gave way and began eroding sand underneath the road.
WATCH: Roadway fall into massive sinkhole.
A utility pole also stood at the edge of the sinkhole, and a live gas
main ran through it. Crews were able to stabilize the utility pole, and
National Grid workers were on scene and shut the gas off.
The road in Chelmsford will remain closed for a few days as the sinkhole is fixed.
A smaller sinkhole had also opened up near 404 Wyman Street, causing
police to shut part of that street for a brief time, and reopened it at
around 10:45 a.m. - MyFOXBoston.
Firefighters Rescue Dog Trapped In Sinkhole In Frederick, Maryland
Firefighters in Frederick, Md., successfully rescued an elderly blind
and deaf dog who got trapped inside a large sinkhole Sunday.
Officials were called to Old Farm Drive and Wainwright Court Sunday
morning after a homeowner reported that the dog had fallen into the hole
that opened overnight. Officials blew warm air into the hole during the
rescue effort in order to protect the dog, a 14-year-old Lhasa Apso,
from hypothermia.
Reporter Abby Theodros of WHAG-TV in Hagerstown reported the sinkhole is
shaped "like a hockey stick," which made the rescue even more
difficult.
Officials were eventually able to get a rope around the dog and pull her
up out of the hole. Frederick police say the sinkhole was about three
feet wide and 12 feet deep. The city says it did not directly affect
houses or the road and that there is no threat to residents.
The sinkhole was caused by the rainy weather, authorities said.
WHAG posted this photo of the rescue on its Facebook page.
WATCH: Firefighters rescue dog trapped in sinkhole.
March 29, 2014 - EARTH - The following stories are the latest reports of sinkholes across the globe over the last few days:
30-Foot Deep Sinkhole Appears In Front Yard, Wahiawa, Hawaii.
A sinkhole opened up on a property on Dole Road in Wahiawa Thursday afternoon.
Police were called, and they covered it up and blocked it off.
The resident says this is not the first time this has happened on the property.
Amateur video showed the hole before it was covered.
The curious gathered around it but with the ground saturated by a recent
downpour, no one wanted to stand on the edge for too long.
Sasha Terry came home after a doctor's appointment, and found the scene in her front yard.
At first, it was just a couple of feet deep.
"It was no more than two feet - two feet deep,"
said Terry. "and then it dropped to 30 feet, more than 30 feet."
She went on to say that, "it's an old cesspool. They (the landowners)
tried to pack it down before when it opened up but when the heavy rain
comes down and softens up all the dirt it will make it sink even more.
But this time the water got super, super down there."
Holes have opened up before in other areas around the island.
One incident took place in Enchanted Lake 9 years ago, the result of a leaky pipe or an old septic tank.
And in 2007, a water main break opened a sinkhole, also in Enchanted Lake.
In order to stabilize the hole, the ground has to dry up, but weather
forecasts call for more rain in Wahiawa, and it will be heavy at times.
WATCH: Large sinkhole causes concern in Wahiawa.
"More rain, more water," said a worried Terry. "It's going to soften the dirt around it and get bigger."
But not according a retired geologist with 38 years of experience with the Board of Water Supply.
Chester Lao says most cesspools were dug 30 feet deep.
"It won't get any deeper," said Lao. "If anything, it will get shallower
because of all the stuff that went into the cesspool is piled up on the
bottom," he said.
KHON2 asked Lao if other homeowners who live near abandoned cesspools will run into a problem like this as well.
"Yes, I'm afraid so," said Lao. "Especially for older homes built in the 30′s, 40′s and early 50′s even."
He added, "So, we can expect more of these, not just in Wahiawa, but in various other places."
When the ground finally does get dry, Terry says the landowners will
probably do what they did the last time, and that is pour concrete,
asphalt and dirt into the hole, and seal it up tight with a concrete
cover. - KHON2.
Sinkhole Opens Up On Busy Northwood Road, London, England.
A sinkhole opened in Pinner Road, Northwood, this morning (Friday) and has got the experts perplexed.
Police were called to Pinner Road in Northwood at at 9.50am this morning after a sinkhole opened up.
There are no reported injuries but it is not yet clear whether any vehicles were affected.
Hillingdon Council has been made aware and the area has been cordoned off and the road and surrounding ones closed.
Matt Williams, who was at the scene, said road diversions are going down
Addison Way towards Northwood. As of 12.15pm there was a back log of
traffic building up down Joel Street.
It has been a freaky 12 hours for Northwood - yesterday a crane crashed in to a property in Murray Road.
Truck Gets Stuck In Sinkhole, Wellington, New Zealand.
Wellington City Council is urging motorists to avoid the southern end of
Main Rd in Tawa on their way home tonight as work continues to fix a
burst water main.
This morning, police and the fire service were called to the scene at
near Oxford St just after 10am after a rubbish truck got stuck in a
sinkhole created by a burst pipe.
The vehicle partially blocked one lane and the road was closed to traffic for a time. A tow truck was called to help remove it.
A council spokesman says both lanes of Oxford St are open, but the speed
limit has been reduced to 30kmh while workers repair the broken pipe
and the road.
Northbound motorists should consider taking the motorway to Porirua then double back to Tawa.
The water supply is gradually being restored to affected areas, but some properties may not have water back until around 5:30pm.
The truck driver said he noticed a bump in the road and as he drove over it, the back wheels sunk into the ground.
The burst water main sent water gushing into the street.
- 3News.
Sinkhole Shuts Street Down In Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A sinkhole on Central Avenue near UNM has shut the street down in the area.
Crews need to fix a broken water main before the busy street can reopen,
and the Water Authority is working tirelessly to get things patched up.
Central is shut down between University on the west, and Yale on the east.
The Water Authority says it will remain that way for at least through
Tuesday evening. They hope to have one westbound lane and two eastbound
lanes open for Wednesday morning's rush hour.
The Water Authority found out about break earlier Tuesday afternoon.
Someone spotted a sinkhole that looked like one big, awful pothole. The
water crews quickly discovered that a 10-inch steel water main --
beneath the surface of the road -- gave way. That's when they shut down
Central in both directions.
Not long after that, Chopper 4 spotted them digging
up a large chunk of the road to begin the repairs. Fortunately, they
say the repairs have not affected any customers -- everyone still has
water.
They were able to isolate the leak by closing off several valves that
are strategically placed in the area. Interestingly, KOB Eyewitness News
4 spoke with a few people who live and work in this area. They say they
had a feeling something bad happened below ground days ago.
If you typically use Central to get to work in the morning, do yourself a favor and find a different route.
- KOB.
Sinkhole Closes Section Of Major Road In Derry Township, Pennsylvania.
A sinkhole has closed a portion of Route 322 in Derry Township, Dauphin County.
"322 (westbound) is being closed at Hockersville Rd past the Cherry Dr
intersection for a sink hole," a tweet from the Derry Township Police
Department states.
It's expected that the portion of road will be shut down through rush hour.
- WGAL.
Giant Sinkhole Appears At Intersection In Detroit, Michigan.
A giant sinkhole has opened up on Detroit's west side.
The sinkhole is at the intersection of Monterey Street and Linwood, near Elmhurst Street.
Crews have blocked off the intersection and have begun evaluating the
damages. The sinkhole is approximately 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep.
The concrete gave way as a contractor from the Water and Sewerage
Department was inspecting a dip in the road with a small camera. No one
was injured.
Workers tell FOX 2's Randy Wimbley a collapsed sewer riser caused the
sinkhole. It eroded the soil underground which caused an 8-inch water
line to give way.
WATCH: Giant sinkhole on Detroit's west side.
Repairs are expected to take weeks.
If a 9-foot sewer line about 38 feet underground is in disrepair because
of the sinkhole, that will have to be fixed in addition to the sewer
riser and the water line, which will take more time.
Crews tell Wimbley a few cracks stretch out pretty far from the collapse
so the sinkhole has some potential to get larger. They are monitoring
the situation.
- MyFOXDetroit.
March 26, 2014 - WASHINGTON STATE, UNITED STATES - The death toll from Saturday's devastating landslide in Washington is expected to rise to 24 after increasingly desperate rescuers slogging through debris recovered two bodies and believed they had located eight more, the local fire chief said on Tuesday.
The devastation: This aerial photograph taken in the aftermath of the huge landslide that struck Oso in Washington
state on Saturday morning shows how the hillside collapsed - while the red-dots in the diagram (inset right)
represent the 30 + homes that have been leveled by the disaster
Painstaking: Searchers slowly move through a field of debris following Tuesday's deadly landslide that
left an estimated 24 people dead with dozens still missing
The official death toll rose to 16 with the discovery of the additional victims as crews searched under drizzly skies for survivors amid fading hopes that anyone could still be plucked alive from the massive pile of mud-soaked rumble.
'Unfortunately we did not find any signs of life today, we didn't locate anybody alive, so that's the disappointing part,' local fire chief Travis Hots told a media briefing.
WATCH: More Mudslide Victims Found.
'It’s unimaginable, the conditions out there they’re dealing with,' Hots said.
The grim discoveries came three days after the collapse of a rain-soaked hillside about 55 miles north of Seattle.
Searchers had warned they were likely to find more bodies in the debris field, which covered a neighborhood of 49 structures. Authorities believe at least 25 were full-time residences.
Quicksand: Rescuers user inflatable rafts to traverse the watery sludge and debris that has built up around the
rubble caused by the huge landslide that hit Oso on Saturday
Hit like a bulldozer: Houses and other structures are shown flooded by the backed-up Stillaguamish River up-river
from the massive mudslide that killed at least 24 people on Saturday and left dozens missing
Prayers: People gather Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at a candlelight vigil in Arlington, for the victims of
a massive mudslide that struck the nearby community of Oso, Washington
Authorities believe that the mudslide destroyed 35 homes, as well as 13 manufactured homes, including RVs, and at least one cabin.
As many as 176 people remained listed as missing three days after the slide on Saturday, tumbling over a river, across a state road and into a rural residential area where it swallowed dozens of homes near the town of Oso.
Officials said they were hoping that number would decline as some of those listed as missing may have been double-counted or were slow to alert family and officials of their whereabouts. Eight people were injured.
But the disaster already ranks as one of the deadliest landslides in recent U.S. history. In 2005, 10 people died when a hillside gave way and engulfed homes in La Conchita, California.
'We're all still hoping for that miracle but we are preparing for the other possibility,' Washington State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins said Tuesday afternoon.
And as the rain still fell on Tuesday night, about 200 people gathered in the cold at a park in Arlington to pray for the victims, friends and family of those lost.
'Hug each other. Wipe away each other's tears,' said Pastor Chad Blood with the Lifeway Foursquare Church in Arlington.
Hope: A flag, put up by volunteers helping search the area, stands in the ruins of a home left at the end of a deadly
mudslide from the now-barren hillside seen about a mile behind, on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, in Oso, Washington
More than 100 homes were affected by the collapse of the hill and the overflowing river
which now separates the town and covers one mile
The river's banks have collapsed and water is flooding after mud piled in from a hillside on Saturday,
and remains the same today
'People are just responding,' he said. 'When a need arises they just come and take care of it until we have to turn them away. I'm speechless at times, and so very proud of out community.'
Though authorities have said the chances were low of finding any more survivors in the cement-like mud blanketing the landscape, Hots said some 50 more searchers had been brought in to sift through the disaster zone in hopes of a miracle.
'This makes up over 200 responders that are here on site working very hard to locate victims and hopefully find somebody that is still alive. That is still our number-one priority out there,' he said.
'What we're finding is these vehicles are twisted and torn up in pieces.'
'It's amazing the force and magnitude what this slide has done.'
Another obstacle has been the chaotic nature of the debris field itself. In some places, the ground is covered by 15 feet of rubble.
'It's muddy in areas, it's like quicksand,' said Hots. 'One of the folks out there told me, "Chief, sometimes it takes five minutes to walk 40 or 50 feet".'
Searchers are also running into gasoline and septic discharge and dealing with ground that geologists warn remains unstable.
At one site in a square-mile zone of devastation that once contained a meandering river surrounded by rural homes, the landslide pushed a house onto the highway, leaving nothing intact but its cedar shake roof.
Operators of excavators with clawed buckets dug through the debris, and chaplains stood by to comfort searchers and families of the missing. Hots said dogs also were being used to identify potential buried bodies, which were dug out in some cases with bulldozers or other heavy equipment.
President Barack Obama, who was in Europe for a meeting with world leaders, signed an emergency declaration ordering U.S. government assistance to supplement state and local relief efforts, the White House said.
Set side by side, the two images show how the one-mile stretch of land looked before the disaster this
weekend which saw more than 176 go missing and killed 14
Search: From a helicopter, Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary surveys the wreckage of homes destroyed in
Saturday's mudslide near Oso, Washington as the search for survivors grew on Monday to include
scores of people who were still unaccounted for
Devastation: Search and rescue personnel continue working the area of Saturday's mudslide, at Oso, Washington
Speaking at The Hague, where he was attending a summit, Obama began a news conference on Tuesday by addressing the disaster in Washington state and asking Americans to 'send their thoughts and prayers' to those affected by the disaster.
'We hope for the best, but we recognize this is a tough situation,' he said.
The president also called Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Tuesday to discuss the mudslide, according to Inslee's office.
Compounding the sense of urgency was a fear of flooding as water levels rose behind a crude dam of mud and rubble that was dumped into the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River by the slide.
The river was rising with rain on Tuesday, but had cut a channel through fresh mud and debris, lessening the chance of flooding, officials said.
A volunteer was injured Tuesday when he was struck by debris blown by a helicopter's rotor. The man was transported to a hospital for evaluation, but the injuries appear minor, Snohomish County sheriff's spokeswoman Shari Ireton said in a statement.
Near the southern perimeter of the slide, volunteers from a logging crew gathered to help move debris with chain saws, excavators and other heavy equipment.
Gene Karger said he could see six orange flags in the debris field, marking bodies they would be pulling out. Karger, a logger most of his life, said it was the first time he was involved in this kind of rescue work.
'You see parts of their bodies sticking out of the mud. It's real hard. It's that bad,' Karger said. 'There are people out there we know.'
Hots said about 200 responders using everything from heavy equipment and search dogs to their bare hands were working through the debris field Tuesday in rainy, wet conditions.
'We didn't locate anybody alive,' he said. 'We haven't lost hope that there's a possibility that we can find somebody alive in some pocket area.'
More than one mile of rain-soaked hillside collapsed onto the remote town, which is just five square miles in size, at 11am on Saturday.
Three days on, hundreds of rescue workers with dogs, aircraft and sonar equipment remain scouring the wreckage for survivors in the slide which has swamped a fifth of Oso's land.
But amidst the devastation, experts have revealed they predicted this would happen in 1999.
In a report filed with the US Army Corps of Engineers, geologists warned of 'the potential for a large catastrophic failure' 15 years ago.
'We've known it would happen at some point, we just didn't know when,' co-author Daniel Miller told The Seattle Times.
Geological reports warning the hill is in imminent danger of collapse date back to the 1950s.
Apocalyptic: Steve Skaglund walks across the rubble on the east side of Saturday's fatal mudslide
Here rescue workers are seen removing a body from the wreckage of homes destroyed by a mudslide near Oso
This is one of the six bodies found after emergency services expressed doubt over their ability to find the missing people
But the alerts, issued by experts every ten years, went unnoticed.
And in a press conference following Saturday's slide, the head of Snohomish County's Department of Emergency Management, John Pennington, said 'it was considered very safe'.
Mr Miller said he was shocked to see houses being built around the danger zone weeks after a slide in 2006.
The slide, which was thought to be caused by heavy rain, formed a new channel along the cliff-side, but carpenters immediately set to work erecting homes along it.
'Frankly I was shocked that the county permitted any building from across the river,' Mr Miller told the paper.
In fact, the area has long been known as the 'Hazel Landslide' because of landslides over the past half-century. The last major one before Saturday's disaster was in 2006.
'We've done everything we could to protect them,' Pennington said.
Patricia Graesser, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle, said it appears the report was intended not as a risk assessment, but as a feasibility study for ecosystem restoration.
Asked whether the agency should have done anything with the information, she said, 'We don't have jurisdiction to do anything. We don't do zoning. That's a local responsibility.'
No landslide warnings for the area were issued immediately before the disaster, which came after weeks of heavy rain. - Daily Mail.
March 26, 2014 - NEPAL - The land cave-in that appeared at Thulibeshi Phant of Armala, Kaski, today morning, has further terrorised locals.
Another sinkhole in Armala, locals terrified
The sinkhole has destroyed Krishna Prasad Paudel's cowshed. According to
Paudel, the sinkhole appeared suddenly at 4:00 am today. "We evacuated a
buffalo to a safe place. Otherwise, it would have been killed," said
Paudel.
After a sinkhole appeared on land deemed safe by locals, they have been terrified.
"My family members did their best to fill the sinkhole with soil, but the cave-in has not stopped, Paudel said.
"The cave-in at the upper portion of the land has taken away our sleep," Parbati Acharya said. "The sinkhole has endangered the entire settlement. Wherever we step, there seems to be a cave-in. How can we save our property?" Acharya wondered.
Thulibeshi Phant has developed more than 150 sinkholes ever since it began around five months ago. The cave-ins have jeopardised a private school, 200 houses and vast swathes of arable land.
Secretary Ram Prasad Parajuli of Armala Disaster Concern and
Construction Cooperation Committee said the sinkholes have destroyed
water pipelines. "The sinkholes have damaged arable land," Parajuli
said, adding, "Armala locals have incurred loss of Rs 90 million so
far."
A high-level government committee formed to study Armala sinkholes had
recommended Rs 7.3 million to control the disaster. Experts have warned
of worse consequences if appropriate measures are not adopted to control
sinkholes before the onset of monsoon. - The Himalayan Times.
March 25, 2014 - WASHINGTON STATE, UNITED STATES - Brenda Neal was still at the fire house at midnight, watching as
rescuers caked with mud returned from the search for survivors of a
massive landslide in rural Washington state.
A destroyed home is stranded atop mud and debris on Highway 530 near Oso on Sunday, March 23.
Groundwater
saturation, tied to heavy rainfall in the area over the past month, was
blamed for the landslide,
which authorities say measured at least 45
yards wide.
But they had no answers for her about her missing husband, Steven.
There was despair on their faces, she said.
Rescuers on Tuesday continued to battle mud and debris -- with the consistency of quicksand in some places -- in the search for survivors, but hopes dimmed as no one has been rescued since the slide on Saturday.
The death toll stood at 14 with 176 others missing or unaccounted for. Officials have stressed those unaccounted for are not necessarily all victims of the disaster. They believe many names are duplicated.
Steven Neal's family holds out hope, despite discouraging signs.
Neal is a plumber who was on a service call in the area where the landslide hit.
"None of us feel like he's gone," Brenda Neal said.
Her daughter, Sara, agreed: "I think if anyone had a chance to getting through, it would be him."
Monday's effort yielded a grim result -- six bodies.
"I'm very disappointed to tell you that we didn't find any sign of any survivors, and we found no survivors today," Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots told reporters Monday night.
The landslide covered about a square mile and was caused by groundwater saturation tied to heavy rain in the area over the past month. It affected Oso, with a population of about 180, and Darrington, a town of about 1,350.
The
remains of a massive landslide are seen near Oso, Washington, on Monday,
March 24. The landslide
on Saturday blocked the highway and the
Stillaguamish River.
A search and rescue team carries the body of a victim on March 24.
A helicopter flies over on March 24 surveying the damage from the landslide.
An intact house sits at the edge of the landslide on March 24.
Downed power lines and parts of a destroyed house can be seen in the debris blocking the road near Oso.
U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene tweeted out this photo of the devastation that a landslide caused in Snohomish County.
President Barack Obama, in the Netherlands on Tuesday, asked "all Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state and the community of Oso."
Obama said he had spoken with the state's governor and signed an emergency declaration.
Early hopeful signs, like a 4-year-old boy who was rescued on the day of the landslide, have faded for some.
One survivor, Robin Youngblood, cared for the rescued boy immediately after he was pulled out.
"They brought him to us in the ambulance. I took all his clothes off because he was freezing," she told CNN affiliate KCPQ.
She comforted him, but foreshadowed that this could be a life-altering event.
"I wrapped him up and held him and told him I was a grandma and couldn't find the rest of his family," she said.
More and more stories of those unaccounted for continue to emerge.
Nicole Webb Rivera is missing her parents, daughter and her daughter's fiance.
The last communication Rivera had with them was a Facebook comment that her daughter posted Saturday morning.
When she was unable to reach them, she knew that her worst fear was realized. She believes her daughter and her fiance were at Rivera's parents' home in Darrington.
This
image, released by the Washington State Department of Transportation,
shows the hillside that
gave way in the upper left. It also shows the
blocked highway and river.
Officials warned residents of possible flooding both upstream and downstream of the collapse.
The
landslide cut off the small town of Darrington and prompted an
evacuation notice
for fear of a potentially "catastrophic flood event,"
authorities said.
The first Washington State Patrol trooper arrives on the scene, according to the patrol's Twitter feed.
Add caption
"This is catastrophic for our community and all of us who are waiting for word on our family members," Rivera told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "It's such beyond the scope of my four missing family members. It's grief for our whole town."
Some 49 structures were impacted or destroyed by the landslide, Snohomish County Emergency Management Director John Pennington told CNN.
Geologists say the area impacted by the slide is not unstable, but rescuers face great challenges.
"The best analogy, I think, is a microcosm of Mount St. Helens," Pennington said. "This went down, it went hard, it went fast, and the debris is deep."
Peering across the devastated landscape, Cory Kuntz just shakes his head.
Thanks to the efforts of friends and neighbors, his uncle's life was spared, though he was nearly buried alive.
WATCH: Over 100 missing in Washington landslide.
WATCH: Death toll continues to rise.
WATCH: Families still hopeful.
"They heard him pounding on that roof. He had a little air pocket and a stick. He said he was poking up on it, banging on it," Kuntz said. "My neighbors and my friends came and started digging him out and just couldn't get to my aunt in time."
The first reports of the landslide came in about 10:45 a.m. Saturday (1:45 p.m. ET), the sheriff's office said.
Dave Norman, a Washington state geologist, said the landslide was about 4,400 feet wide with a wide debris field. In some places, the debris is 30 to 40 feet thick.
"This is one of the biggest landslides I have ever seen," Norman said. - CNN.
