Search turns to recovery effort for 3 missing in Logan mudslide


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UPDATELOGAN -- Logan police and fire officials announced their rescue effort shifted to a body recovery effort shortly before midnight Saturday.

Officials say they have dug as far as they safely can and do not believe there anyone could have survived. They are confident the three were inside the home at the time of the slide.

Logan's fire chief says the mountain should stabilize in a few days, after which they will go back in.

All search and cleanup efforts have been halted for the night. Officials are asking the public to stay off the mountain saying it is unstable and very dangerous.


Earlier

LOGAN -- A Logan canal ruptured around noon Saturday afternoon, sending water and mud rushing into a nearby neighborhood. Three people who lived in a home hardest hit by the slide are still unaccounted for.

Canal rupture sends debris into homes

The canal is located on a wooded drop-off south of the Utah State University campus and Highway 89. When it burst, it sent debris straight into homes near 900 East and Canyon Road, an area known as the Island.

One home was completely leveled by the force, and officials say it likely happened just seconds after the break.

Chief Russ Roper, of the Logan Police Department, said, "The mud came down from the hill and hit it from behind and rolled it forward."

3 people missing

Three people are presumed inside the home, including a 13-year-old boy, a 12-year-old girl and their 39-year-old mother.

"She called her landlord five minutes before the house came down, saying, ‘There's a problem. There's water coming in,'" said Nurian Cuellar, a relative of the missing family.

Officials say the canal had been running high with irrigation water in the days leading up to the breach.

Neighbor Chris Johnnie said the hardest part was trying to control all the water coming down the hill. "When the water broke and came down, we were diverting the river to keep it out of people's houses," he said.

Other homes in the neighborhood were damaged, and 15 were evacuated as crews scrambled to handle subsequent problems, including a gas leak.

"It sheared the gas line to the house, so there wasn't a gas line to secure. They actually had to penetrate the asphalt and go down and find the gas line," said Chief Mark Meaker of the Logan City Fire Department.

Geological teams surveying the area

Officials praised the quick work of emergency responders, including two trainers with the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force who happened to be in the area.

Experts from Utah State University came down to assist geological teams in surveying the area. "The hillside is unstable ground. The conditions are unstable at best," said Roper.

Some neighbors wonder if more could have been done before the slide ever happened. Resident David Knavel said, "The road was a sinkhole, a swimming pool last night at 4:00 in the morning, so there was plenty of warning."

Dozens of people evacuated from their homes

The Red Cross in Logan turned an LDS meetinghouse near 600 East and Center Street into an evacuation center. Red Cross officials say they're prepared to help up to 50 people overnight.

Most of the 20 people who were evacuated are staying with friends and family, though some of them are staying at the church.

Many of those evacuated wonder if they will have homes to return to. Janice Covington worries for her son.

"My biggest concern is they're not going to be able to get to their house to try and get their clothes out, and they just don't have any money," she said.

For now, crews and volunteers are working to clean up the mess. Some of the homes may have to be condemned.

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Story compiled with contributions from Sarah Dallof and Alex Cabrero.

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