Heavy rains lead to mudslides

SUPERIOR - There were no reported injuries or damage to private property after two separate mudslides struck near Superior Thursday night sending tons of mud, rocks, trees and other debris plummeting down hillsides.

One mudslide, at some points 15 feet wide and over three feet deep, narrowly missed striking a home off Pardee Creek Road approximately two miles west of Superior at approximately 9 p.m. on Thursday. The slide came within 50 yards of the unoccupied home before spilling out onto the road.

The second, larger slide occurred off Dry Creek Road and was significantly deeper but narrower than the Pardee Creek Road slide. The slide deposited mud over four feet deep and spilled into the nearby Dry Creek. Both slides required significant effort to clear debris from the roads which were temporarily impassable. Both roads are currently open for travel.

Mineral County Planner Tim Read said officials became aware of the events on the night of Thursday, Aug. 14, and immediately began work to clear the roads.

Read speculated since both mudslides occurred in areas burned in last year’s West Mullan Fire, the hillsides had little vegetation to prevent erosion after recent heavy precipitation in the area.

“We were concerned last night,” Read said. “There was enough debris and mud on the roads that it was creating a problem. We’ve seen rain like this before but we haven’t seen mudslides. The hillside was pretty heavily vegetated before the fire. I’ve never seen this before around here.”

Mineral County Road Foreman Jason McLees was in charge of the clean-up effort.

McLees said it took the crew of three over three hours to remove debris from the sites.

He said removal of the material required a front-end loader.

“I’ve never seen it that bad before,” McLees said. “It was a mess. At some places the mud was three or four feet deep. Water has a lot of power and after all that rain it just sent all that stuff down the draw. It’s hard to mitigate those problems and sometimes you just have to deal with the aftermath.”

McLees also said he agreed with Read’s assessment that the slides were largely due to a lack of vegetation at the sites to hold the ground together.

McLees said after the West Mullan Fire burned off a good portion of the vegetation at both mudslide sites, there was little that could be done to prevent such events.

“The fire burned everything off the hills,” McLees said. “The Forest Service has been on top of it helping to clear those roads but if we get more rain like we just had, we could get more of these.”

McLees said both roads were open by 2 a.m. Friday morning.