House slides into sound
Christopher Dunagan — Feb 9th, 1996
It could be weeks before hill is safeBy Christopher Dunagan
Sun Staff
HOUSE BOAT?Lt. Steve Wright of South Kitsap Fire District No. 7 (in back of row boat) rides back to shore after checking on the condition of a summer home that was pushed into Puget Sound by a mudslide. The slide on Shoreline Drive SE in Olalla forced the evacuation of 12 families. Staff photo by Larry Steagall
Olalla resident Cary Coppock, 79, and his wife Lillian were rushed out of their home and evacuated by boat Thursday morning after tons of mud splintered a nearby house and left a dozen others in jeopardy.
In all, 12 families on Prospect Point in South Kitsap were ordered out of their homes and told they will not be allowed to return until the unstable bank on the steep hillside above the area is declared safe. That could be days, if not weeks or months.
The vacant house that was pushed into Colvos Passage is an old summer home belonging to a couple living in Arizona, according to Lisa Kirkemo of South Kitsap Fire District No. 7. The couple, whose name was not available Thursday night, were shocked to get the news by phone Thursday afternoon, she said.
But the disaster belongs to everyone who owns a home on Shoreline Drive SE, where houses are perched beneath tons of saturated soil. Dirt continued to slump down the hill all day Thursday.
"What a tragedy," said Coppock after a Coast Guard crewman literally carried the older man from the rigid-hull inflatable boat and planted his feet safely on the beach.
"Most insurance does not cover slides," noted Coppock, who said his own home was "fairly protected" because it was within a valley.
"We packed our bags and our house is locked up," said Coppock, who was among the last to be evacuated by boat. Residents couldn't leave by land due to barricades across the unsafe road. "We'll call our daughter in Portland, and she'll come up and get us."
The 79-year-old managed a faint smile as he praised the efforts of the Coast Guard, county officials and fire personnel. "Nobody has carried me since I was little," he said.
One woman was taken out by rowboat before the Coast Guard arrived "because her house was threatened," said fire Lt. Steve Wright.
According to Phyllis Mann of the Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management, all but one of the families found a place to stay with friends or relatives Thursday night. One couple chose to stay in a Seattle motel, because they work across Puget Sound.
Because Shoreline Drive is a private road, said Mann, residents of the area must hire their own engineer to examine the bluff and to stabilize it, if necessary.
"Now comes the hard reality," said Mann. "These people have to fix this property themselves."
Unless they have insurance that covers floods and other natural disasters, that could be a very expensive effort.
The steep bluffs along Colvos Passage are notorious for their instability, said Mark Grimm, a building inspector who entered the Shoreline Drive area by foot after the huge mudslide.
"While I was down there, checking to make sure everybody was out, there were small slides coming down everywhere," he said.
In addition to the summer home, which was destroyed, casualties include a newer house, where the flowing mud pushed up against a back wall plus at least one other house damaged by rolling boulders. But everyone was thankful that nobody was hurt or injured.
The slope is extremely unstable, said Grimm, because there are many tons of surface soil pressing down on a layer of clay. When the clay becomes wet enough, the overlying soil slides downhill like an elephant on ice.
The United States Geological Survey has designated the entire shoreline as a "hazardous slope area," he noted, and many slides have been reported over the years.
As recently as January 1992, a beach home in Fragaria (north of Olalla) was knocked into Colvos Passage by a mudslide. In that event, four families were ordered to leave until the slide could be cleared the following week. Other reports of slides causing damage to houses stretch back to the 1940s.
Other storm problems
Besides the Olalla floods and mudslides, police and fire officials reported no major weather-related incidents.
* South Kitsap Mall workers said one woman was trapped in her car for 15 minutes after she accidentally drove into a large parking lot puddle that seemed at least 2-feet deep in the middle.
The woman's car stalled and water flooded the passenger compartment, said Ski Marchlewski, a tow truck driver for Budget Towing and Automotive.
The woman, who mall workers described as elderly, remained in her car until rescued by a customer from The Hub Department Store.
* The rain caused at least one area business to flood. Cathy Flaherty, who operates Leander Research and Manufacturing in Port Orchard, said she walked into her building this morning to find it covered with about 2 inches of water.
Workers and firefighters laid sandbags and pumped the building all morning, managing to control the flooding by early afternoon.
* At the south end of Hood Canal, the rain caused part of the Skokomish River to rise a foot over flood stage, according to officials with the Mason County Department of Emergency Services. Water backed up in low areas and blocked Bourgault Road near the river's mouth, but there were no reports of water in houses.
* On Arvick Road, near Manchester in South Kitsap, Joe Niessen watched out his back door after an early-morning mudslide carried away much of his backyard, including a chain link fence and landscaping timbers. Minor erosion continued throughout much of the day but did not seem to threaten the house, said Niessen, who expected an engineer to examine the site today.
* Doug Bear of Kitsap County Public Works said water was flowing over county roads in many places, and minor slides were numerous.
* The heavy rains also helped cause two oil spills totaling less than 6 gallons at the Manchester Fuel Depot.
Containers separating water from fuel became inundated with rain, causing a mixture of water and diesel fuel to dump into Puget Sound and Little Clam Bay.
Manchester Fuel Depot officials noted the fuel quickly dissipated, causing no harm.
The containers can separate up to 750 gallon per minute.
In addition to the summer home, which was destroyed, casualties include a newer house, where the flowing mud pushed up against a back wall, plus at least one other house damaged by rolling boulders. But everyone was thankful that nobody was hurt or injured.
RAINY WAIT:
Melissa Yaden, 10, left, and her sister Kristin, 11, right, wait for the school bus to take them to Olalla Elementary School, while their grandfather, Eugene Murnane, protects them and himself from the rain Thursday morning.
WALKING IN WATER: Kristyn Clark, 12, walks through 3 feet of water that swamped a Puyallup cul-de-sac Thursday. In the background, a neighbor pumps water from his house.
Staff photo by Larry Steagall
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