{"id":4938,"date":"2014-03-23T19:43:46","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T02:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=4938"},"modified":"2014-03-23T19:43:46","modified_gmt":"2014-03-24T02:43:46","slug":"blocked-river-trickling-through-massive-mud-wall-in-deadly-washington-landslide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/03\/23\/blocked-river-trickling-through-massive-mud-wall-in-deadly-washington-landslide\/","title":{"rendered":"Blocked river trickling through massive mud wall in deadly Washington landslide"},"content":{"rendered":"

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SEATTLE – Water that built up behind a massive deadly mudslide in Washington state began trickling downstream, reducing the threat of potential flooding along the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, authorities said Sunday.<\/p>\n

The square-mile of mud and debris that killed four people had raised concerns about a possible flash flood downstream of Oso, about 55 miles north of Seattle.<\/p>\n

“The danger is much less than it was last night,” Steve Thompson, public works director for Snohomish County said at a news briefing Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

The river was slowly starting to carve out a new channel, allowing enough water to pass through to relieve pressure behind the debris field, he and others said.<\/p>\n

Officials said they don’t think the water would suddenly burst, but urged residents living in nearby communities to remain alert.<\/p>\n

“There’s a small amount coming around the north edge of the slide. It’s not alarming, and is allowing the water building behind the dam to settle out a bit,” said Bronlea Mishler, a spokeswoman for Snohomish County. “It’s flowing fairly slowly, and the on-scene folks have no major concerns.”<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service said a flash flood watch for Snohomish County was in effect until Monday afternoon. Meanwhile, Gov. Jay Inslee urged residents in nearby communities to remain in a “heightened state of awareness” until things fully stabilize.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s slide destroyed several dozen homes and blocked about a mile of State Route 530. It also dammed the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River.<\/p>\n

Inslee said there were no plans to move the debris blocking the river. “The river will find its way over the days and weeks to come,” he said at a news briefing Sunday.<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service in Seattle said Sunday afternoon that water is clear as it flows through the new channel, indicating that “we can expect a steady release of water through the blockage rather than any sudden burst or rapid rise.”<\/p>\n

John Pennington from the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management said the area where the slide occurred has a history of unstable land. He said a slide also happened there in 2006.<\/p>\n

Authorities believe the slide was caused by ground water saturation from recent heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n

David Montgomery, an earth and space sciences professor at University of Washington in Seattle, said these deep-seated slides tend to occur from rainfall over months or seasons. “It can raise the water table in a slope and that decrease its stability,” he said. “This was a big deep one, a giant slump.”<\/p>\n

There may be many factors, but “the very wet month of March that we had is clearly a factor,” he added. All that rain can raise the groundwater table in a slope and undermine its stability, he said.<\/p>\n

The weather service’s Brent Bower said Sunday about a quarter- or half-inch of rain is expected in the area Monday night and Tuesday. “It’ll make things messy but it’s not going to affect the river much,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE – Water that built up behind a massive deadly mudslide in Washington state began trickling downstream, reducing the threat …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":4949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,17],"tags":[1309,352,362],"class_list":["post-4938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-w","tag-mudslide","tag-us","tag-washington","mauthors-phuong-le","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}