A startling number of devastating mudslides in the Pacific Northwest over the past 10 days has not escaped media attention. While the reports predictably attribute these incidents to saturated soil from melting snow pack and heavy rain, the broad geographic proximity of these events occurring within a narrow time frame suggests there is more to the story. The Zetas explain:
"Why has a spate of mudslides occurred in the region just inland from Vancouver Island and center of the Juan de Fuca Plate border? The presence of the Juan de Fuca Plate shows the pressure that is applied during Pole Shifts as the N American continent is pulled into a bow. The Pacific Plate has been fractured to create the Juan de Fuca, in essence. This happens regularly because, as we have stated, the N American Plate is flat on top, so it cannot roll. S America and Africa can roll, though they also bend and bow to some degree. N America bows until the New Madrid adjusts and the Seaway rips, but until then has stress from top to bottom. Mountainous areas are prone to landslides, due to the angle on hillsides, but when they happen, en mass, within days of each other, something else is afoot. The ground has moved, reacting to the bow pressure." ZetaTalk
Below is a summary of significant landslide reports in western North America since June 2012. Between July 12 and July 20, eight dramatic mudslides were documented in the Pacific Northwest providing compelling evidence of the ever increasing bow pressure being applied to the North American Plate.
June 11 - Massive Landslide in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. Perhaps the largest landslide in North American history, half-mile wide and 5 ½ miles long, registering as a 3.4-magnitude earthquake, burying a remote valley beneath the 11,750-foot Lituya Mountain in the Fairweather Range about six miles from the border with British Columbia.
June 24 - Josephine Creek Near Kaslo, BC. Mudslide wiped out dam that funnels water to Kaslo BC on Kootenay Lake about 70 kilometres north of Nelson.
July 12 - Mudslide in Kootenay BC Region at Johnsons Landing. 4 houses washed away by mudslide on Gar Creek, above Johnsons Landing, carving a path of destruction down the mountainside into Kootenay Lake.
July 14 - Mudslides Close 66 Miles of Highway and Rail Line in Washington. Multiple mudslides buried railroad tracks, buckled State Highway 14, after mud and debris gushed down the bluffs above the Columbia River in eastern Klickitat County about 50 road miles west of Goldendale.
July 15 - Second Mudslide in Kootenay BC Region at Fairmont Hot Springs. 600 stranded as Highway 93/95 buried in debris from mudslide at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort. Mudslide initially formed a dam along creek upstream from the resort, eventually releasing a devastating torrent of mud and debris.
July 17 - Third Mudslide in Kootenay BC Region Closes Highway North of Castlegar. A mudslide late Tuesday afternoon evacuated three homes and closed Highway 3A near the small town of Thrums, just four kilometres northeast of Castlegar, B.C. It is the third slide to hit the Kootenay region in less than a week.
July 17 - Multiple Mudslides in Glacier National Park, Montana. A five mile stretch of Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park was closed after a series of rock and mud slides hit several vehicles on Going to the Sun Road.
July 18 - Mudslide Closes Highway 821 in Central Washington. A section of State Highway 821 from a point 17 miles north of Selah to Ellensburg was closed due to a large mudslide. The scenic highway along the Yakima River is also known as Canyon Road.
July 20 - Mudslide Closes TransCanada Highway Near Banff, Alberta. A football-field sized mud slide has closed a portion of the TransCanada Highway with over a metre of mud on the westbound lanes and half a metre on the eastbound about two kilometres west of Banff between the Norquay and Castle Junctions in both directions.
"Almost Daily" Landslides on Washington Railroads (Dec 27)
Dozens of mudslides have buried the railroad tracks between Seattle and Everett, creating a major disruption for rail traffic and commuters who rely on Sounder service. Landslides on Puget Sound railroad tracks are reaching record levels. Almost daily, slides are slowing freight and knocking passenger service right off rails.
The latest happened at 2:40 a.m. and it started the clock on another delay for passenger service on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) line between Everett and Seattle’s Carkeek Park.
Land and mud slides have shut that route down to passenger service for 10 days and it will stay that way at least until Monday.
BNSF officials say 40 to 50 slides big enough to affect rail traffic have covered the rails this season, making it the third worst slide season in 20 years. And it's early enough for more to pile up. One slide this month derailed a freight train; others have left tons of debris from the steep hillsides along the Sound piled up on the rails.
On Thursday BNSF took drastic action. Loggers were hired to brave the unstable slopes to cut trees they deemed risky. BNSF said geotechs advised them to cut the trees despite their roots' ability to stabilize the slope. The trees are just too dangerous to leave dangling at threatening angles over the rails.
Thousands of passengers have been forced to take buses instead of trains through the danger zone. The passenger closure means that's how Sounder commuters north of Seattle will have to get to work Friday.
Mudslide derails train south of Everett, Washington, USA
EVERETT — A mudslide just south of Everett derailed a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train Monday afternoon.
The slide came off a large slope and hit 66-car train at about 1:30 p.m., BNSF Spokesperson Gus Melonas said. The slide was at least 75-feet long and forced 11 cars on their side. Some of the cars split open on impact, Melonas said.
Officials said it was the same area of track where a slide closed routes earlier in the day. The trains carried many different types of items, Melonas said, including disinfectant chemicals. A Haz-Mat team responded to the incident, but discovered no threat to public health.
Melonas said the tracks will remain closed for freight through a good portion of the week. Amtrak and Sound Transit Sounder trains will not run until late Wednesday at the earliest.
BNSF operates more than 1,000 feight trains every day on more than 32,000 miles of track across the United States.
No Solution for Mudslide Disruptions on Seattle Railways (Dec 3) - With Sound Transit and Amtrak forced to cancel service again between Seattle and Everett because of mudslides, state officials say despite millions of dollars, they admit there's only so much they can do.
The latest slide comes just two weeks after mudslides covered the tracks in a number of places, halting passenger service for the entire Thanksgiving week.
The Federal Railroad Administration has kicked in $16 million for the Washington State Department of Transportation and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, owner of the tracks, to help brace the slopes.
"It's not going to fix the whole slide problem, but what we're going to target is more fence catchments of slides to prevent it from ending up on the tracks," Pate says.
The money will also be used to improve storm water containment to help catch and divert some of the runoff pouring from the hillsides above.
"We think that by controlling that storm water and having better drainage facilities that should improve it significantly."
The state and BNSF spent the summer clearing culverts and drains, removing brush and debris, building new ditches and reshaping some of the hillsides, Pate says.
That's little comfort to frustrated passengers and both Amtrak and Sound Transit, which are forced to bus riders around the slides whenever the tracks are closed.
Sound Transit has had to cancel more than 200 trips because of slides since service started in 2003, Gray says. The agency operates eight Sounder trains weekdays on the line, four each way. Amtrak runs six trains everyday, three each way, according to The Everett Herald.
Comment by Robyn Appleton on November 21, 2012 at 12:47pm
EDIS Number: LS-20121121-37265-USA Event type: Landslide Continent: North-America Country: USA County / State: State of Washington Area: Puget Sound, near Everett Coordinate: N 47° 57.840, W 122° 14.400
Due to mudslides, Amtrak and Sound Transit canceled service on that route until at least Wednesday. BNSF Railways reported nearly a dozen mudslides near Everett Monday afternoon, triggering its policy to automatically shut down passenger trains for 48 hours after a slide. So, Amtrak and Sound Transit are using buses to move riders around the slide north and as far north as Vancouver, BC. The Washington State Department of Transportation oversees Amtrak service. WSDOT spokeswoman Laura Kingman says the two-day wait time is a safety precaution. "Passenger safety is our number one priority," Kingman says. "So if there is a mudslide then we know that there is enough soil saturation in the area that the soil underneath the tracks could potentially be unstable." Freight trains typically start running soon after the tracks are cleared but passenger trains are required to wait longer. Kingman says BNSF, WSDOT, Sound Transit and Amtrak recently discussed shortening the wait time but they decided to keep the policy in place. She says BNSF clarified its policy guidelines, saying the 48-hour moratorium takes effect after major slides but not when the tracks are merely obstructed by small debris.
A mudslide in Jasper National Park early Tuesday morning forced the closure of Maligne Lake Road at the north end of Medicine Lake.
Steve Blake, the visitor safety manager for the park, said the slide likely happened between 3:30 and 5 a.m. when a localized thunderstorm hit the Maligne Valley.
"As a result we had several sections of the mountain slip on the road, leaving between 10 and 15 metres deep of rock and mud debris," Blake said.
Boats were brought in to take people out. There were only 14 people in the area at the time, Blake said.
The road is expected to remain closed for at least three days.
Blake said park officials should have a better idea of when it will re-open once a geotechnical specialist evaluates the area on Wednesday.
The city of Quesnel, B.C., remains under a state of emergency today due to the threat of flash flooding after a recent landslide.
Officials say the slide on Baker Creek, about three kilometres upstream from the Fraser River near Pinnacles Provincial Park, may have occurred late last month, creating a blockage and backing up water to a depth of three to 3.6 metres.
If the blockage is breached, homes would be made vulnerable to flooding quite quickly, said Quesnel fire chief Sylvain Gauthier.
"If the slide fails and all this water is just going right through it in one shot, it would take approximately 30 to 35 minutes to make its way to the city limits, where some of the housing are located right beside the creek," Gauthier told CBC News. "It could jeopardize some of the housing through a major flash flood."
Specialists with Emergency Management BC have already visited the site on Baker Creek in Quesnel, 114 kilometres south of Prince George.
Officials are urging residents to evacuate the area around the creek until further notice.
EVERETT — A mudslide just south of Everett derailed a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train Monday afternoon.
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