Astoria residents forced to leave their homes as landslide grows nearby
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Several Astoria residents are left wondering when they can return home after a growing landslide forced them to evacuate Monday.
The area has been known to slide for decades, but those living on 27th Street say it’s getting worse by the day. What was once a bump in the pavement with mud running down the street on Saturday is now a massive buckle in the road.
City public works crews estimate it's about a five acre slide with eight properties in the slide area – including five homes. Those forced to evacuate say they’ve seen cracked sidewalks outside and noticed doors that used to close fine are not closing easily anymore.
“It's a bit snug in there. Our foundation relatively looks OK – a little different, but more or less good shape,” resident Mckinley Erickson said. “Here's hoping if the worst is through.”
Crews are currently monitoring the hill behind these homes and the retaining walls below it.
Friday was a wet day in Astoria, the tail end of weeks of wet and freezing weather that said has saturated much of the ground. After a weekend of buildup, Deputy Fire Chief Brian McCarthy said water has begun to pour from the landslide, which could be a good sign the slide is starting to drain.
“Once the activity of the landslide ceases, we will be able to bring the geologists back out to look at it to determine that kind of stuff then we will have some engineers come out to look at the homes to determine their habitability,” he said.
McCarthy said there's also a concern for the water and sewer lines underground if it keeps growing, since landslides in the area have been a concern since the ‘50s.
“These areas become a little bit more on our radar,” he said. “We watch them closer than an area that hasn't had history.”
Until then, McCarthy describes the slide as shallow and slow moving, but still a threat to the people who call the hillside home.
Erickson said he and his partner “woke up to quite a bit of mud coming down the street.” They decided to grab their valuables and stay in a hotel their landlord owns. Now they’re heading to a friend's house in Seaside until they can return home.
“As a community, people have been really supportive of it so far,” Erickson said. “I still have to work. A lot of us do, so we are just ensuring I'm able to stay operable this week.”
Until then, power, gas and water has been shut off until the slide dissipates.
“A lot is kind of unsure, up in the air right now,” Erickson said. “There's only so much they can tell, but the moral of the story is, ‘We strongly recommend you evacuate,’ so from there we've been planning our options and waiting.”