Slide

Summary: A mail car is among those knocked into the water by a mudslide that hit a freight train 10 miles north of Seattle

A landslide hit a freight train at the base of a Puget Sound bluff and knocked five cars into the water, including one carrying mail.

The slide Wednesday night ten miles north of Seattle left about 150 feet of track covered with mud and debris up to 25 feet deep, said Gus Melonas, spokesman for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

There were no injuries and no hazardous material spilled.

Repair had to wait for engineers to say the scene was safe. A second slide about 6 a.m today forced emergency officials at the scene to back off. One house on top of the bluff was evacuated as a precaution, the Edmonds Fire Department said.

"It's very unstable. I was just down on the track, and you continually hear earth moving," Tim Whitman, a battalion chief, said this morning.

The slide hit as the southbound train was passing.

"Obviously, there was just tremendous force that came down with this slide that knocked off five cars," said Melonas.

"Fortunately the locomotives made it through OK -- the slide hadn't come down with force yet. The three locomotives made it through, the first car made it through, then the slide came down with all of the force and knocked the next five cars right off the track toward the water."

The 35-car train was carrying freight from Chicago to Seattle. The other cars remained upright.

The railroad can reroute trains through Stampede Pass and the Columbia Gorge, Melonas said. Amtrak trains between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, are blocked.

The Coast Guard put a boom around the debris in the water as a precaution and to hold the debris in the water.

Once equipment can start work, it should take 48 hours to repair and reopen the track, Melonas said.