Dozens of residents in a peaceful Puget Sound setting were forced to evacuate Wednesday after a huge landslide knocked one house over and threatened 33 others.
Some living near the water had to be evacuated by boat because debris from the landslide blocked the roadway, The Associated Press reports.
No one was injured in the Whidbey Island community, located 50 miles from Seattle, AP reported.
Geologists are on scene, studying and assessing the after-effects and risk factors. Homeowners of 15 homes have been allowed to return, but engineers are still concerned that a couple of homes in particular face threat, and they consider the area of the landslide still unstable, AP says.
The area affected by the slide spans 400-to-500 yards across the hillside and runs between 600 and 700 yards toward the water, Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue Chief Ed Hartin said in the AP report.
“We have no specific cause as to ’why here, why now, why this big,’” he said, AP reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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