'Wall of mud' damages homes on Whidbey
Officials said a beaver dam blocked a culvert uphill from the homes, then broke loose at about 7 a.m., sending the wall of mud and debris cascading downhill toward Puget Sound near the Clinton ferry terminal.
| View a photo gallery of the mudslide damage. » |
Several homes were flooded and some suffered foundation damage. Some residents of the area had been evacuated overnight because of the danger, and no one was injured.
The mudslide also washed out a 100- to 150-foot stretch of Glendale Road.
"It caused a lot of damage because there was a lot of trees and debris," said Island County Sheriff Mark Brown.
One homeowner in the area, Dan Montecalvo, called the experience "the scariest moment of my whole life."
"I heard a large crack - it sounded like an earthquake - and then this whole wall of water hit my house, lifted it up, put it down," he said. "It was probably about a 6-foot wall of water that came through there."
County crews now are removing debris and repairing the road.
Officials told KOMO News that they first realized there was a problem on Thursday when crews discovered a large beaver dam on Glendale Creek, uphill from the homes, that had backed up a 20-acre pond behind it.
Crews began pumping out the backed-up water on Thursday as steady rain fell, and kept pumping all night because the culvert was too small to handle the flow.
Then, around 7 a.m., the dam started making strange noises, as if there was too much pressure behind it. Crews had to pull out the pumps and run.
And just in time, too, as the dam collapsed behind them, sending the wall of mud, water and logs roaring down the hillside.
Some of the homes are now uninhabitable.