Landslide below old fire

Longtime Joe Rich resident Ralph Ormerod says it started to hail Monday night, which quickly turned to snow and now is rushing water.

He lives in Joe Rich, directly above where a large section of Highway 33 let go into Mission Creek on Tuesday.

Ormerod has lived on Huckleberry Road for 20 years and says there have been two slides in the past 10 days.

“This is the first slide we have had directly below our property. The one we had two weeks ago (was) more towards the switchback (on Highway 33),” he said.

Ormerod spent much of this morning diverting water around his home.

“Everyone is trying to do something to have it go around their house rather than through,” he said. “We are feeding the water down there.”

A wildfire occurred just below his home two years ago, which destroyed many of the trees in the area. Ormerod took Castanet on a hike through the forest to show how water is running through the hill down to Highway 33 and  also pooling in some areas.

“Obviously, next to Highway 33, below us where the fire was, you don’t really have the amount of absorption in the ground that we used to have,” said Ormerod.

Two people living at Heartland RV Park said they first heard about the slide at 6 a.m.

“All we knew was a slide came down somewhere, and the bus couldn’t show up,” said Sandrina Chartrand.

Chartrand was told the school bus would not be picking students up on Highway 33 near Heartland Ranch and instead would be picking them up at the corner of Highway 33 and Goudie Road.

“The highway is gone... it’s gone,” she said.

The two slides are on either side of where she lives, and the ground is saturated and looks unstable, she added.