“We have allowed them back in, with the understanding that it is a hazard still,” San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters said. “It’s just really hard to tell what’s going to happen.”
The slide, estimated at 80 feet wide and 15 feet deep, occurred below West Meadows and was reported Saturday evening. It stopped in the trees, just a few hundred yards short of the Telluride area’s affordable housing, the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office said.
 This landslide near the Lawson Hill housing area triggered the evacuation of residents Saturday. The residents were allowed to return home Monday. (Photo courtesy of San Miguel’s Sheriff’s Office) Advertisement |
None of the 13 homes endangered were damaged and no one was injured; however, SMCSO deputies and Telluride Fire crews monitored the situation through Saturday night.
Because of concerns the slide would continue down the hill, authorities evacuated the five occupied homes and had the gas and power shut off, Dinsmore said.
Residents were allowed to return briefly to gather belongings on Sunday morning, the SMCSO said in a news release.
Dinsmore said all families in the threatened area were able to find somewhere else to stay; in one instance, a family was able to stay in the vacant condo belonging to one of the firefighters.
According to her news release, another “small flow” occurred Sunday afternoon, but it was diverted by a line of sandbags that deputies, fire crews and residents had just erected.
County road and bridge crews dug contingency ditches to divert the heaviest runoff, which will be used in conjunction with the sandbags to funnel the water into the Skunk Creek drainage.
Power and gas companies have since located all power lines, Dinsmore said. The main gas line had to be uncovered because it didn’t have an above-ground shut-off valve.
“If more debris comes down the hill on a large scale, we’ll be able to get there and turn off the gas line,” she said.
The sheriff’s office consulted with Buckhorn Geotech of Montrose. Geologist Tom Griepentrop had advised against the residents returning home before Monday because the warmer temperatures could increase snowmelt and possibly trigger more slides.
The news release also said Griepentrop warned similar situations were possible in areas of steep slope throughout eastern San Miguel County.
Buckhorn Geotech will continue monitoring the ground for movement for the next week.
“This is from that heavy snowfall,” Dinsmore said of the slide. “This (Lawson Hill) is an area that doesn’t normally have runoff and it does (now) because of the heavy snowfall. We’re hoping what happened Sunday was the worst of it.”
She said the snowpack from weather that dumped foot after foot of snow on the San Juans this past winter left greater recharge above Lawson Hill. A subsurface channel caused the water to build up, then release.
Shallow surface debris is expected to continue flowing and residents can see up to two months of continual flow into the drainage ditch.
The mountain remains unstable, Dinsmore said.
“I hope it’s made its move,” Masters said. “I would guess this would be a fairly common occurrence throughout the mountains of Colorado this springtime.”
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