Several homes evacuated after mudslide near Eden


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EDEN, Weber County — A homeowner near Nordic Valley ski resort in Weber County is keeping a wary eye on the hill above his house after a slide Tuesday shoved a mountain of snow, mud and trees against his home.

“You can’t really believe it’s happening to you,” Ted McGrath said. “It sounded like a very strong wind event.”

He was sitting at the dinner table with his wife when the slide happened after 6:30 p.m. at 1970 N. 3775 East.

“I heard a noise like a big wind, and my wife jumped up,” McGrath said. They jumped away from the dinner table and “a bunch of trees fell into our yard.”

When they went to get a closer look at what had happened, “an avalanche came down, trees and snow came down, punched a couple of holes in our house,” he said.

The slide measured 150 feet across and 300 feet long. The pressure of the snow bowed the wall of the garage and sent a tree through the garage wall.

The McGraths have lived in the quiet and secluded area for more than 30 years.

“Thirty-five years here, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

Nobody was injured.

The house is fine structurally, but the tree that punctured the garage also took out the electrical panel and transformer.

The road above the slide had about an inch or so crack, which was discovered Sunday, said Lance Peterson with the Weber County Department of Emergency Management. Crews set up sandbags along the road.

“It was just supersaturated soil underneath the road,” Peterson said. “There’s not much you can do about it. You just hope and pray it doesn’t go.”

But it did.

“This area was forested, just like you see over here to the right or left, now it’s totally cleaned out,” Peterson said.

About two-thirds of an acre of forest was flattened.

“We’re going to have to wait for this to dry out,” Peterson said. “You can’t get heavy equipment up here right now to repair this.

When the hill starts to dry, they’ll see how quickly they can clean up the area.

“This is still our home. You take the bad with the good,” McGrath said. "There have always been a lot of challenges living here. This is a new one.”

The McGraths are out of their home for now. Three other homes along the road have also been evacuated as a precaution.

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Jed Boal

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