Officials think State Route 410 landslide has stabilized

NACHES, Wash. — The massive landslide that destroyed a quarter-mile stretch of State Route 410 about 10 miles west of here appears to have stabilized, emergency officials said today.

Power may be restored by this evening to those customers affected, according to Pacific Power officials. Roughly 900 customers in the affected area — just west of the Woodshed Restaurant — were still without power this morning.

Officials hope to open a temporary road — possibly following Nile Road, which is now partially inundated by the Naches River — within the next three to five days, said Jim Hall, director of the Yakima Valley Office of Emergency Management.

It may take several more weeks to months to restore State Route 410, parts of which were buried and destroyed when the landslide occurred Sunday morning.

In the meantime, emergency management officials say one of their priorities is rechanneling the Naches River so that Nile Road is a useable alternate to State Route 410.

The state’s Department of Transportation and Yakima County officials have agreed to transfer the responsibility of the affected section of Nile Road from the county to the state, said county commissioner Mike Leita.

That move would have to be approved by Gov. Chris Gregoire and would ostensibly give the state financial responsibility for road repairs. A state emergency proclamation for the area is also awaiting the governor’s signature.

But before repair work on Nile Road can begin, “there has to be some significant short-term work to get the river back to a new channel,” said Leita, who toured the area for about four hours this morning with emergency officials. “Half the river is going over the Nile Road. ... There is water running over and across the Nile Road, in some places 3 feet deep.”

Officials say flooding damaged 25 homes in that area. The landslide itself damaged five others, offficials said.

Today, geologists, emergency managers, and construction engineers are at the site of the landslide — as deep as 40 feet in some places — to assess the situation, said DOT spokesman Mike Westbay.

“They’re deciding whether the hillside is still moving , which way the river is going to continue to flow, how that’s affecting Nile Road,” he said.

Yakima County commissioners have signed an emergency proclamation to acknowledge the landslide and allow county departments to begin purchases and budgetary requirements to support field work, officials said.

Access by emergency services to the affected area remains intact, Hall said, adding that an ambulance was stationed above the slide overnight. Also, the Nile-Cliffdell fire station is west of the landslide and available to serve residents cut off by the road closures.

So far, there is no official estimate of the financial loss, but Hall said it could range from $15 million to $20 million in damage to roads, houses and the rest of the area.

The slide, which began about 6 a.m. Sunday, moved dirt and rocks onto State Route 410 and shoved the asphalt as far as into the Naches River.

The heaving mass moved continually Sunday morning. And in some places of State Route 410, the earth had lifted another 4 feet overnight, said Leita.

State DOT officials say they will have to work around the large pile of dirt left by the landslide to begin clearing the road.

“It’s too big to push out of the way, so we are still exploring our options,” Westbay said.

Dammed by the landslide, the Naches found its own way around the slide, causing flooding in the area.

While the state focuses on fixing the roadway, the county’s “first and primary concern is to create a new channel,” Leita said.

The county is in the planning stages of creating a diversionary or containment berm to protect the Nile Road and stop the water from inundating the several homes along its south end.

State, county and local authorities had been visually monitoring the area before the slide began. Nobody was injured.

Residents above of the slide area can leave through Bethel Ridge Road, a winding dirt, one-lane mountain road that climbs about 4,000 feet, Westbay said. The Forest Service Road is to be used solely as an emergency evacuation route, he added.