By Tom Mark

Update: Eastside Road to Reopen After Mudslide

Apr 10, 2018 | 3:25 PM

City of Vernon staff have cleared the debris from Eastside Road and hydro crews are now working to restore power to the area.

One-way alternating traffic will start at 4 pm today using either Eastside Road or Kokanee Road, depending on how the clean-up progresses.

A preliminary onsite inspection by a geotechnical engineer indicates that the banks are stable.

The landslide was likely caused by natural drainage of surface and ground water.

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This morning’s mudslide in Okanagan Landing has had city works crews busy all day clearing it out.

Mud and debris came down near 9185 Eastside Road just before 1:30 this morning, covering the entire road, damaging a couple of vehicles and a home.

Vernon Public Works Manager James Rice says the slide happened in a natural drainage course.

“There is a culvert above the slide area. It looks like, from what we can tell, it looks like the ground was saturated as a result of snow melt likely.”

Rice notes the this typically happens this time of year, but the bank was simply saturated and gave away.

He says there was no warning of an issue.

“We have had different areas along Eastside Road where we’ve had water that’s been showing up, but nothing to indicate that we were going to have a problem as far as a slide at this particular location.”

A geo-technical engineer was brought in early this morning.

“Just to make sure that the site was first safe obviously for the public and our workers. So, they’ve done an initial assessment. That got us started as far as the cleanup was concerned. We’ll bring him back likely tomorrow morning to do a further assessment.”

No one was injured in the slide.

Photo of house impacted by slide by Kerry Zboyovsky-Murphy

Rice says the city hopes to have the roadway reopened by 7 o’clock this evening, or sooner, if possible.

Hydro was also knocked out to 328 homes when the slide took out two power poles.

Hydro crews need to put them in more stable ground and may not have power back on until this evening.

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It’s going to be several hours before people in the Okanagan Landing area whose power was knocked out by a mudslide overnight will have it back on.

The slide came down near 9185 Eastside Road just before 1:30 this morning.

BC Hydro’s Dag Sharman says 328 homes are affected.

“It took out two poles and knocked them over. To fix the problem and restore power we have to get those poles back up but we need stable ground.”

But crews have to wait until City workers get the mudslide cleared.

The slide covered the entire road and was several metres thick.

The city said it could take until about noon to clear it out.

Dag Sharman says it’s not going to be a quick fix.

“We know we have to move where the poles were to find stable ground which makes it a bigger job. We’ve got to add conductor, the wire and that sort of thing, so it is quite a big job.”

He says there’s no real danger to crews, but is a matter of ensuring the poles are permanent.

“It’s a matter of making sure that the poles are in a spot where, when we put them back in, where the ground is stable, because it is unstable obviously around the mudslide area, so we’ve got to extend some of the wire in order to find stable ground for the poles to go in just so they stay up.”

Sharman says there’s no possibility of any temporary rerouting.

He says in some situations Hydro is able to switch the configuration of the power supply to customers but can’t in this case because it’s the only line that serves the area.

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Update 8:25 AM

City of Vernon crews and emergency personnel are out on Eastside Road in Okanagan Landing where a landslide struck overnight.

City of Vernon Communications Officer Nick Nilsen says the call came in about 2:30 am near 9185 Eastside Road.

“It’s hard to say just from looking at it but it’s certainly a couple of metres thick and several metres wide.”

An emergency exit route has been established for residents south of the slide between Kokanee Road and Eastside Road.

One home has been damaged, but no one is injured.

Nilsen says it’s not clear what caused the slide.

“You know, this time of year, there’s a lot of melting happening of course, so it’s possible that there’s been some melt water that’s caused this to happen but we just don’t have that information at this point.”

BC Hydro says 328 homes lost power due to the slide.

It could be this afternoon before it is restored.

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A landslide has damaged one property at 9185 Eastside Road.

Personnel are on scene assessing the situation and Hydro is out to a number of homes in the area.

An emergency evacuation route has been established for residents south of the landslide.

It runs between Kokanee Road and Eastside Road.

City of Vernon staff are controlling the emergency evacuation route.

It is only to be used for exiting; no entrance to the area is permitted at this time.

If residents have an emergency, call 911.

Estimates for opening Eastside Road and returning hydro will be provided once a full assessment is complete.

by Tom Mark