Wet Weather Preventing Landslide From Being Cleared

About two-dozen residents met with Santa Cruz County officials for the second day on Wednesday to discuss the next step in clearing a 200-foot pile of debris that blocks the only road into and out of their neighborhood.

A landslide Monday left 33 homes on Nelson Road isolated in the Santa Cruz Mountains and four homes on Sky Meadow Lane without power for the third day.

With another storm pounding the area, a geologist surveying the extent of the slide Wednesday said it was too unstable to begin to clear at this point, because of the level of saturation.

“For sure, this week we won’t be able to work on it,” said Russell Chen, a senior civil engineer with the Santa Cruz County Public Works Department. “After it has dried out a little bit, [the geologist] is going to take a look again and see where it’s at, but it may require quite a bit of dry weather before we can get to it.”

Chen said that if the slide is cleared too soon, it could get worse.

“What you see from the road is all the debris that has come down, but that’s just part of the slide,” Chen said. “If you go up to the top, there is a huge mass of soil movement and rock movement from up top, and it’s very unstable right now. So if we try to take the toe of the slide out, there is a potential for the rest of the hillside to come down.”

Until the slide can be cleared, creating an access road is a top priority, officials said. Residents created a temporary footpath from one side of the slide to the other shortly after the landslide occurred, but vehicles have not been able to cross over.

“Obviously, the most important thing is access around the slide, especially for emergency vehicles, and then to be able to facilitate the residents getting in and out,” county Supervisor Mark Stone said.

According to Chen, the public works department may begin working on an access road on Thursday; however, residents may still not be able to drive their vehicles through.

“Emergency access is what we are putting it in for,” Chen said. “We will have to discuss it and evaluate it to determine if it will hold the daily traffic through there for all the residents.”

On Wednesday, the Scotts Valley Fire District was able to get a four-wheel-drive truck into the area, where it will stay in case it is called out for an emergency.

“Our plan is to leave it parked on the other side of the slide,” Scotts Valley Fire Chief Mike McMurry said. "We’ll use an engine company to respond, then they will walk across the slide area, get the pick-up truck and be able to respond to the home. This is a temporary measure until public works is able to further evaluate and hopefully construct the access road.”

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office also has ATVs that are used to get around the area and check on residents.

Despite the hardship for residents, many offered their help to officials to get the situation resolved. The residents have also set up a Facebook page to keep in touch with each other and help anyone who needs it.

“We are all very private people up here, so it’s been nice getting to know everyone,” said resident Kris Kaufeldt. “We’ve been able to make the best of the situation and do whatever we can to help each other out."