slide

Summary: Similar breaks on the opposite side of Aldercrest indicate to officials that another slide is likely

Aldercrest, the landslide disaster that has slowly claimed nearly 100 homes, began a year ago with a simple crack in the earth.

Today, on the other side of the hill from the notorious subdivision, dozens of new cracks are opening up on yet another ancient landslide, damaging or threatening to damage a whole new set of homes.

City officials and geologists say as many as 40 more homes to the south of Aldercrest could eventually be involved, unless engineers are able to find a way to stop the slow-moving slide -- fast.

"This is the way Aldercrest started," said Don Harris, Kelso planning/zoning coordinator, nodding toward a crack 30 feet long and 2 feet deep that recently opened up in the sloping back yard of Lance and Lisa Anello. "It looks so innocent. We're concerned. We're very concerned."

Geologists blame heavy rainfall for reactivating an ancient slide on this southern slope of the unnamed hill.

It's a story that has become painfully familiar throughout the region. Scott Burns, geology professor and landslide expert at Portland State University, lists recent examples: in Chehalis, Wash., 18 residents of a mobile home park were forced from their homes in recent months; in Thurston County, a slide has claimed 20 homes in a 60-acre subdivision; in the Columbia River Gorge, an ancient slide caused a spectacular gas line explosion near Bonneville last month.

In Kelso, geotechnical experts hired by the city and a group of geology students from Portland State University who have been studying the area say the new slides in the vicinity of Haussler Road share the same slide-prone geology as that under Aldercrest. Ken Buss, geotechnical engineer for GeoEngineers in Redmond, Wash., earlier found that an ancient landslide was destroying the 137 home Aldercrest subdivision.

Now this second landslide is making its presence felt in pockets of homes that dot the slope.

Burns said his students' surveys found 65 percent of the homes below the scarp are moving, as are 30 percent of those above --about 20 homes, or half of the homes in the area.

City officials have repaired two broken water mains off Haussler Road in the past week, while city workers hurriedly built concrete traffic barriers Friday to hold back the hill above one man's home. On Friday, the city's building inspector also visited the home of Lori and Jeffrey Waybright. The home is riddled with cracks.

"They are little (cracks)," said Lori Waybright, who hoped to learn whether her home was still structurally sound. "When do I get concerned? When do I get concerned for my children's safety?"

Kay Adams, Kelso city engineer, said inspectors have checked about a dozen homes with damage.

"Let me show you something that is really scary," Adams said, pointing to a thin scarp above Haussler Road leading several hundred feet up the hill. "If this road goes, we lose access to 35 homes up there."

The heartbreak and anxiety, so familiar to families forced to leave their homes in Aldercrest, is now being shared by their neighbors to the south.

"This is our dream home," said Lisa Anello, a waitress and mother of two, who with her husband hopes to save their home from devastation. Yellow boards prop a tilting apple tree in their back yard; black drainage pipes and trenches lead water away from the home, which has a view of the Columbia River and room for their two goats to roam.

Homeowners at Aldercrest already face more than $30 million in losses, and they are seeking a federal buyout of their now-worthless mortgages. President Clinton declared the neighborhood a federal disaster area in October.

But city officials say residents outside the subdivision whose homes are damaged will not be a part of whatever help Aldercrest receives because damage to those homes is a separate event. Some are eligible for low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, however, because all of Cowlitz County was declared a disaster for that agency's purposes.

Landslide insurance is difficult to get, and families such as the Waybrights tried to purchase slide insurance when they bought their home but were told it was unavailable. This week, the city hired Buss' firm to drill eight or more bore holes in the Haussler Road area to study the soil and propose a possible fix. The studies will take from two weeks to four weeks, he said.

Adams and Buss say the new slide might be more shallow than that under Aldercrest -- 20 feet deep rather than 40 feet deep. Buss said if that is true, it is encouraging news, because draining or shoring up a slide 20 feet thick is more feasible and less expensive.

Early efforts to save Aldercrest were abandoned because stopping the slide would have cost more than the value of the subdivision.

Families such as the Waybrights and the Anellos hope it's not too late on their side of the hill.

Courtenay Thompson can be reached at (503) 221-8503 or by e-mail at courtenaythompson@news.oregonian.com.