Gigantic mudslide in Colorado

Colorado Mudslide: Three People Missing in Three-Mile-Wide Slide

Weather.com,

25 May, 2014

Three men are missing in rural Colorado after a massive mudslide struck near the small mountain town of Colbran at around 6:15 p.m. local time Sunday, but the search has been hampered because the area of the slide is unstable.

Fifty-one-year-old county road worker Clancy Nichols, his 24-year-old son Danny and 46-year-old Wes Hawkins have been missing since Sunday after rain-saturated ridge collapsed.

Searchers looked for the men Monday at the lower end of the slide. The upper portion is considered too unstable and is at risk of sliding again.

The search is scheduled to resume Tuesday.

The slide is estimated to be 2 miles wide, 4 miles long and up to 250 feet deep in places, the Mesa County Sheriff's Department said. No damage was reported to any structures or roads, but gas wells in the area were shut off under the threat of encroaching mud.

"This slide is unbelievably big," Lt. Phil Stratton of the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, said. Authorities added that the site of the mudslide was extremely unstable and that the entire ridge was likely moving for much of the day Sunday.

Matt Renoux        ✔ @MattRenoux

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Pic of massive mudslide near Collbran in Mesa County. Probably more than 10 miles away and still looks huge. #9News

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According to weather.com meteorologist Jon Erdman, the area didn't see substantial rainfall amounts, but what little rain did fall may have contributed to the slide.

"Nearby Grand Junction did pick up 0.42 inches of rain Sunday," said Erdman. "Another 1.05 inches of rain fell from May 10 to May 12. Higher totals atop Grand Mesa likely contributed to the slide."

Search and rescue efforts began almost immediately for three men, all locals, reported missing after the mudslide was reported Sunday night. A county road worker, his son and another man went to check on damage Sunday from an initial slide near the edge of Grand Mesa, one of the world's largest flat-topped mountains, after a rancher reported that his irrigation ditch had stopped flowing, Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey said.

Hilkey said no signs of the men or their truck have been found. Their names haven't been released.

"Everyone on this mountain is praying for a miracle right now," he said.

Deputies estimate that the entire ridge had been moving for most of Sunday before someone called to report the slide at 6:15 p.m., describing it as sounding like a freight train. Hilkey believes runoff from Grand Mesa from recent rain triggered the slide. A hydrologist from the Natural Weather Service and a geologist from the U.S. Geological Survey were helping authorities assess the situation.

Bill Clark, a cousin of one of the missing men, visited the canyon where the slide struck and said it was completely filled with mud. He said the slide struck with so much force that some also spilled over into the neighboring draw.

"I've never seen so much earth move like that in my life," he said.

From a distance of about 10 miles, the slide looked like a funnel, running from a ridgeline at or next to the flat-topped Grand Mesa and narrowing into a culvert below. It cut a giant channel through trees. Roads in the area, where some cattle grazed, were muddy from rain.

Collbran resident Lloyd Power was on the side of a road Monday, gazing out at the slide.

"How in the devil could this happen?" Power said.

He said residents were praying for the missing. "That's all we can do," Power said.

A sheriff's helicopter was surveying the slide area Monday. Authorities erected a roadblock to keep onlookers from the slide area outside Collbran, a ranching town of about 700 people that also serves as a gateway to outdoor recreation like hiking and fishing. The slide is near Salt Creek Road and Vega Reservoir, which is in a state park.

The area is part of the Piceance Basin, one of Colorado's largest natural gas producing areas. Mud came up to the edge of three wells owned by the Occidental Petroleum Corp. and workers manually shut down the wells and connecting pipelines Sunday in case the slide continued to spread, said David Ludlam, executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil & Gas Association, a trade group.

No spills have been reported. Other operators are also monitoring wells, he said.