Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
NORTH SALT LAKE -- North Salt Lake city leaders are trying to figure out what to do about a crumbled retaining wall and the landslide it caused Monday morning.
Neighbors heard rumbling around 7 a.m. as the wall and surrounding land slid down from Randy Tran's property toward houses below, taking out three backyards. Now neighbors below are dealing with mud and boulders that slid onto their property.
Property owners concerned about impending rain
As the cleanup process begins, there's another big concern: A spring storm is on the horizon. Forecasters say thunderstorms with hit the area Wednesday and could linger through Friday.
Related:
Homes below North Salt Lake slide are safe, but for how long?
A hillside suddenly gave way in North Salt Lake, tumbling from one home toward two others below. City officials decided the homes are safe to live in for now, but that conclusion is still under review. Residents say this is not the first time they've been in this situation.It's something the city is very aware of; however, city leaders say the above property owner's insurance will take care of cleanup before the storms arrive.
"That's one of the issues that I did speak to the insurance company about," says Barry Edwards, North Salt Lake's city manager. "Right now, this is a disaster. But if they don't get busy, it could be a catastrophe. So, I think they got the message."
Monday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey assessed the damage and told residents they were safe to stay. But later in the afternoon, geo-technicians for North Salt Lake's insurance company said it was risky.
The geo-technicians caution that if more water saturates the hill, more debris could come down -- especially since the hill was already so saturated.
Records show the Trans family, who live above, used 12,000 gallons of water in the last 10 days -- enough to fill a backyard pool halfway.
Apparently, Randy Tran had turned on his sprinkler system for the first time Sunday night. He says he fixed a couple of broken valves and everything was fine.
"We went to sleep. I wake up in the morning, and my neighbor woke me up and said my rock wall fell down the hill," Tran said.
This is the third time a slide has occurred on this hillside on Lofty Lane. Tran says he invested more than $130,000 in the three-tier retaining wall, which he says was inspected and approved by the city.
Neighbors describe landslide
Two neighbors who live directly below the property were awake during Monday's slide and described hearing the retaining wall crumble.
We were always kind of worried about it even as they were building it.
–neighbor
Bonnie Mendez said, "I heard this rumbling. I came out and this was all coming down, so I ran next door to tell them to get their kids out; because if that wall came down, it could go right through their house."
Another neighbor below said, "We looked out the window and saw that the wall had come down. At that point, I also saw that the water was shooting out of the wall from the sprinkler system and from the water main. So I was concerned that the water was still going to cause more of a slide."
Neighbors told us they have been worried about that happening. They said they knew it wasn't safe.
"We were always kind of worried about it, even as they were building it," one of the neighbors said. "We thought this could potentially be a problem at some point. When we saw the hill was irrigated with water, we were even more concerned."
The city of North Salt Lake has informed all the affected neighbors that they are safe to occupy their homes. But after another incident, neighbors do not feel safe at all.
"No, it's not very safe," Mendez said. "I don't feel safe in my house, and I don't think the neighbors should feel safe in theirs with little kids with rocks and boulders ready to come down."
Some of the owners, including the Mendez family, are still deciding on whether to stay.
More insurance adjusters are expected to be at the home Tuesday morning. They'll look closer at the financial end of this disaster.
------
Story compiled with information from Nicole Gonzales, Shara Park and Marc Giauque.
