Summary: Three years of heavy rains have reactivated an ancient landslide, and there's little that can be done about it

Entering the house is like boarding a listing ship. Trees stand at crazy angles. And at night, the landowners sometimes can feel the land slip.

Edward and Diana Mellis slowly are being dispossessed by Mother Nature.

Their modest rural home on South Upper Road sits atop a 20-acre, slow-motion landslide creeping toward an unnamed tributary of Abernethy Creek. Greased by this winter's torrential rains, a great plate of alluvial soil is gradually carrying away the Mellis homestead and the adjoining properties of two other owners.

When the creek nibbles off the toe of the slide, the land moves a little more -- as much as 4 feet since 1996.

The slow landslide is similar to earlier slides in the Oregon City area and to one that's destroying a subdivision in Kelso, Wash. It could be a harbinger of things to come, warned a Portland State University geology professor who has mapped Portland-area landslide zones for Metro.

Scott Burns said that three years of heavy rains have reactivated an ancient landslide. The formation is 12,000 to 16,000 years old and comprises alluvial soils from the prehistoric Missoula Flood.

Such slides never really stop moving, according to Burns, who said heavy rainwater accumulating in clay layers has sped up their motion. He said there's little that can be done about it.

Burns said the area stretching up the Clackamas River from Oregon City through Carver almost to Estacada is prone to slow-motion slides.

"This is classic," Burns said, "and this is not the last of them. It's the same mechanism that's happening in Kelso. We're into a much wetter cycle for the next 15 years. It's going to reactivate a lot of these older landslides. I'm concerned. We're lucky in that there aren't a lot of houses built on this one. I feel sorry for the homeowner."

Burns said a February 1996 slide on South Holly Lane in Oregon City cut two houses in half. There also was a slide at that time affecting four lots in the Beaver Lake development off South Henrici Road, as well as in Newell Canyon.

Facing the reality

Electricity and phone service are intermittent in the Mellises' two-bedroom house; wires have broken in numerous places as the ground moves. Cracks infuse the structure. The well has been sheared off 15 feet down; the Mellises get water through a garden hose from an uphill neighbor. They also collect runoff rainwater from the roof in a plastic garbage can. The metal barn, built five years ago, shows twists and gaps. The ground is full of pits, slopes and cracks that weren't there a few months ago.

The problem is about three years old but has become dramatically apparent with this winter's rains and a small earthquake earlier this year. The Mellises know that their home of 14 years, where they had hoped to retire with their horse and five cats, soon will be uninhabitable.

"It's hard to face the reality of the whole thing," said Ed Mellis, 57. "This place was going to be the last stop. We can't live here very much longer, that's for sure. But we're not giving away the animals. They're like our children."

No one is sure what to do, but at least the Mellises have time to plan. They hope to buy a small piece of property somewhere else where they can accommodate their animals. They say they'll miss their wooded tract where raccoons and grazing deer are a common sight.

"We've moved part of our things out," said Diana Mellis, 51, "but right now we have no place to go. We might wind up under a bridge. I'll live in a tent out here before I leave the animals."

A tough choice

The Mellises say they're frustrated that Clackamas County has closed the crumbling last 600 feet of Upper Road that winds down onto their property. The Mellises must use it at their own risk. County road workers say they can no longer maintain the road, after months of shoring it up.

The Board of Commissioners will discuss the problem when it meets at 10 a.m. today in the county annex, 906 Main St.

"The board faced a tough choice," said Bill Kennemer, county board chairman. "The road is no longer safe. The taxpayers cannot afford to be the insurance company for natural disasters."

The Mellises said they have mortgage insurance but will still lose the equity in their property, which is valued at more than $256,300, according to county assessor's records. They said they feel frustrated because no public agency seems to be able to suggest what to do.

"I'm not asking that you pat me on the head and give me a million bucks," said Ed Mellis, who would like the county to fix the road. "I'm asking, 'Can you help me?' Obviously, there's not an endless depth to their pocket. And obviously, this is not a usual thing."

Mellis is a warehouseman for Graphic Arts in Northwest Portland. Diana Mellis works in the Raz Transportation offices in Tigard. They own about 14 acres.

Kenneth A. Sawyer of San Jose, Calif., owns the adjacent 8 acres. Charles E. Hartfield of Boise owns another 9 acres in the slide area. The Road Department says virtually all the Mellis and Sawyer properties are affected by the slide, and about two-thirds of Hartfield's.

Sawyer, 88 and retired, usually comes from California to live on his land in the summer, in a mobile home. He said by phone from San Jose that he will travel to Oregon City next month to take a look at the problem.

"There's nothing I can do," said Sawyer, who has owned his parcel for 60 years. "It'd just cost you a fortune. It's pretty hard to stop Ma Nature."

Hartfield could not be reached for comment.

Ray Erland, county assessor, has sent all three property owners an application for pro-ration of property taxes because of damage or destruction. Popularly known as the "act of God form," it allows the assessor to adjust 1998-99 property taxes based on loss of use and loss of value.

"It also would lower the taxes for 1999-2000," Erland said. "Ultimately, it will affect the real market value."

" Now that we're in a 20-year wet cycle, we're starting to see more and more of this."