UPDATE, 3:55 p.m.: Several SoHum schools are cancelling classes for the remainder of the week. South Fork High School, Redway Elementary School and the Osprey Learning Center will be closed Thursday and Friday due to transportation and food delivery concerns, Southern Humboldt Unified School District Superintendent Michael McAllister told the Times-Standard.
UPDATE, 2:25 p.m.: Caltrans spokesperson Julie East says Hwy. 101 will remain closed for at least two to three days — barring more rain — after which it may be opened to one-way controlled traffic. Here’s the tale of the tape: The mudslide is 600 feet wide, extends 1,500 feet above the roadway is still moving. The suggested alternate route is Interstate 5, which means using Routes 299 or 36 from the north or Route 20 from the south — inconvenient, to say the least.
Lots more photos from the CHP can be seen here.
UPDATE, 2:07 p.m.: The situation ain’t pretty. Our relative isolation has grown more severe, and a shudder of loneliness sweeps across the land. Here’s a release from the county’s Public Works department:
Hwy 101 between the Avenue of the Giants exit at Silvendale and the Redway exit at Dean Creek has been closed due to a slide. The local roads around this area are not an option for travelers. The roads to the west, Briceland/Thorne Road, Wilder Ridge, and Mattole Road, have all experienced damage in the recent storms. To the East, the Alderpoint Road has also had storm damage. The Dyerville Road has experienced heavy snow fall; it has been plowed but there is still snow on the road and it [is] one lane in many places. These rural roads cannot handle a large volume of traffic or use by heavy vehicles. For the public’s safety Humboldt County Public Works Department is recommending Highways 299, 5, and 20.
Weeks of relentless downpours conspired with gravity this morning to trigger a massive mudslide that completely swallowed a four-lane expanse of Hwy. 101, five miles north of Garberville. Caltrans officials told KSLG’s John Matthews that the highway will remained closed for “at least a couple of days.” Caltrans District 1 spokesperson Julie East said there are many people on site, and they expect to have an updated status report around 2 p.m.
The photo below came from KMUD’s Flickr stream.
Earlier, the California Highway Patrol stunned more than a few folks by suggesting the route would be closed for two weeks. The slide buckled the asphalt and displaced an entire hillside — trees and all. Here’s another aerial shot, provided by County Supervisor Mark Lovelace CHP Luitenant Adam Jager:
This article appears in dummy March 2011 (North Coast Journal).
The photo is courtesy of CHP Lieutentant Adam Jager.
whoopsie!
Great photos!
Thanks for the update; pictures tell their own story!
Maybe if the state would have given Humboldt county ALL the gas taxes instead of balancing state budgets with it we could have fixed our roads before it got this bad…
pave over the top of it so my girl can get home.. plus it will make it more fun for everyone..
Mother Nature bats last
Well, we fixed Confusion Hill #1. Now we need to get some permanent fix to Confusion Hill #2. Same issues, same justifications. Let’s get busy and work on it. Mike Thompson can you help us again?
I am amazed truly at how only a few people know how to detour to the other side of this slide easily in a timely fashion.. Public works statement is a joke, Fed transportation could enact Eminent Domain for easement through the various old county roads now on private ranches.
I hate to ask, but do we know if anyone was in the path of the slide when it hit. I just can’t imagine surviving such a mass of soil or even getting out of its way. YIKES! I hope there weren’t any casualties.
Seems to me like this is an area that needs far more immediate attention than places like Richardson Grove…
How about, instead of CalTrans doing unnecessary road widenings, they spend more time making sure slide prone areas like this are safe for us?
Thank you, fellow citizens, for your lavish gifts of tax-payer dollars. For most of you that’s a four-lane ‘freeway to nowhere’.
The freeway does not go “nowhere”.
Many folks live here in this region.
And use the 101 to travel up to Oregon.
I appreciate the hard work the people at Cal Trans do each and every day.
seconded, johnny cambridge. Sprawl factory’s mandated Richardson Grove project cost is ten million and climbing. This is going to cost a pretty penny to fix. POOF goes money everywhere! How about instead of Richardson Grove, which at least half the local population doesn’t want, they give Caltrans workers (not just management!) raises, PTO, bonuses or benefits? They had no problem cutting all of the above the last few years.
I live here too, and so does everyone I love. I didn’t mean that sarcastically even if I might have been a bit flip, and I do appreciate the hard and dangerous work ahead for CalTrans. Still, I find myself wondering how much that figures out to per capita. What an incredible luxury that big, beautiful road is and all those bridges that connect us with the wider world. From a purely economic standpoint, I suspect the bridge is not a good investment, but it’s an amazing gift. Again, I say ‘thank you’.
Roger that, Botias. Caltrans is no different than any other mega-corp. in that they use their own grunt workforce as PR. They want us to think that if we don’t like what they’re doing, our conflict is with the people who actually do all their work. In reality, their upper management is tied to state and federal’s upper management. Upper level money takes care of itself first and foremost.
Yep, this highway is a lifeline to the NW. I had to get to SF for a flight in the morning. Good thing I left plenty of time. It took me an extra 3 hours, and that was using those tiny local back roads… The shortest route… Which really wasn’t that safe either! All our roads are trashed by the rain. Huge potholes, more mud slides (much smaller, but still dangerous) and lots of edges washed out. Good thing I have 4 wheel drive! Ill definitely take 5 and 299 on the way back. Be careful out there!
There are back roads around that slide. Go through Mad River to Zenia then out to Gaberville SAFE Travels
wow it is very scary and i do too also hope that no one was in the path of it. Hope everyone stays safe every one back home needs 101. Wow bigger than confusion hill i think.
Reviewing all the nes and blogs out there, your readers may want to see these stunning pictures taken by well known photographer Kim Sallway risking life and limb posted on Kym Kemp’s blog,
the Redheaded Blackbelt, here.
Kim’s pictures are outstanding and offer a very different perspective you haven’t seen while the ground was still moving afoot. Check them out. Also, Kym’s blog is reporting the best updates, travel routes, information for big rig operators, and links for travelers, neighbors, and the curious alike in this column and the one preceding it.
Also, the SoHum community has organized a Facebook page, ‘SoHum Awareness,’ helping them organize around this mess. They are doing an impressive job of taking care of their own without complaint. No, you don’t have to be a Facebook member to view it. Yesterday the page was used by neighbors coordinating getting all the school kids home and what road routes were best navigable. All sorts of activity has been happening here.
You can easily view this SoHum Awareness Facebook page here.
Whover thought of this idea should receive a medal of valorous commendation for sheer brilliance.
Stay safe, warm, and dry folks. Buckle up. It could be a bumpy ride if more rain or an earthquake is in the future for our already saturated landscapes.
peace… skips
It’s a good thing no one lives up there.
i live here
We were north of Eureka when this happened, so we took 36 to Alderpoint Rd to detour to the east. That was OK for us in a 4×4, but regular cars might have found the going very rough and it isn’t possible for big rigs and would be very tough on RVs. But directing everyone to I5 is ridiculous. There’s a lot of damage to Alderpoint Rd too, at one point there’s a mud slide partially blocking the river, but on the west side when the road passes on the east.
haha looks cool