Thread: Massive Mudslide In Western Colorado, 3 Missing

5/26/2014 @ 10:43AM 2,417 views

Massive Mudslide In Western Colorado, 3 Missing

Memorial Day weekend is one of the best times of the year to be in the Colorado backcountry.

As the snowpack has begun to melt, high country mountain basins are about to burst into wildflower blooms. Even in the arid, grassland areas of southern Colorado, cholla cacti show off with brilliant, red flowers. If you’re not running the Bolder Boulder 10K in the college town outside of Denver, it’s a superb weekend to get out camping.
So far, only three people are currently reported missing in a huge mudslide in western Colorado near the small town of Collbran, population 708.

Described by local government as “one of the last of the old west cowtowns,” Collbran is 40 miles east and an hour’s drive from the county seat of Grand Junction, gateway to the Colorado and Utah desert and home of some of the finest dinosaur fossil hunting grounds in North America. The closest “larger” town is Mesa.

For perspective, Denver is 234 miles east, a solid four-hour drive.
Last night around 10:00 pm Mountain time, Denver news stations and officials in Mesa County, Colorado, reported that the slide was so wide that I had to confirm I wasn’t reading Twitter incorrectly:
Gawker and Washington Post weather writer, Dennis Mersereau, tweeted that, “If estimates are accurate, the #MCMudslide is 16 times larger and 3 times deeper than the Oso, WA mudslide back in March.”

A unified incident command was established last night between Plateau Valley Fire Department, Mesa County Road and Bridge, and the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office. Local residents began reporting the slide around 6:15 pm Mountain time on Sunday night, together with the news that three men from the Collbran/Mesa area were missing.

Mesa County Sheriff’s Office agency spokesperson, Heather Benjamin, responded to our query in the last hour with the following details:

The men specifically went to the slide area, we are told…and the slide is about 11 miles “ish” from the town. Not surprised that more residents are affected, but surprised that more outdoor enthusiasts aren’t involved…since it is Memorial Day weekend, a big camping time of year.

Benajmin is currently headed out to the area to provide press with photos and more details later this morning. The area is reported as not having adequate cellphone service.

A helicopter recon flight is scheduled for this hour and will provide the first substantial update since last night. Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey will be meeting with the press at noon Mountain, 2:00 pm Eastern, at the roadblock on Colorado State Highway 330 at Salt Creek Rd.

I’ll also be catching up with some geologists to describe the area and its propensity to slides as more information becomes available.

Collbran itself is at an altitude of 6,000 ft. above sea level in the Plateau Creek Valley and is surrounded by mesas up ranging up to 9,000 ft.

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office is already doing an excellent job on social media and readers can follow the discussion on Twitter at the #MCMudslidehashtag and the Sheriff’s Office website.

Update 10:46 am, Eastern: Denver’s 9News reporter, Matt Renoux, posted the first photo of the area fro about 10 miles out:

It’s tough for me to make out the exact margins of the slide but it looks like the entire slab of the cirque gave way. Credit: Matt Renoux, 9News Denver, via Twitter

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkro...ado-3-missing/

Officials Survey 'Unbelievably Big' Colorado Landslide

NBCNews.com

- ‎1 hour ago‎

Officials will take to the air in Colorado on Monday to survey a massive mudslide that left at least three people missing when it washed over a rural area Sunday night. The slide — 2 miles wide, 4 miles long and estimated to be 250 feet deep in some places ...