Wet Weather Preventing Landslide From Being Cleared

About two-dozen residents affected by a landslide that has left their homes isolated in the Santa Cruz Mountains met with county officials for the second day in a row Wednesday to discuss what the next step will be in clearing the 200-foot pile of debris that is blocking the only road into and out of their neighborhood.

The slide that occurred on Nelson Road Monday has left 33 homes in an unincorporated mountain area without access and four homes on Sky Meadow Lane without power for the third day.

And with another storm pounding the area, a geologist surveying the extent of the slide on Wednesday said that 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 a major concern, if the slide is cleared too soon, is for it to 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. Currently, there is a temporary footpath from one side of the slide to the other that residents created shortly after it 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,” Supervisor Mark Stone said.

According to Chen, public works 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 4-wheel-drive truck into the area where it will stay in case they are 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 all-terrain vehicles to get around the area.

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."