GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. — After three mudslides within a week, the City of Glenwood Springs said there's a long process ahead to getting all the debris cleaned up at the bottom of Red Mountain.
Tuesday morning, a heavy debris flow came down the mountain. The city said it's the effect of a lot of seasonal snowpack that is now melting.
"Some of these slopes that the snow is sitting on are extremely steep. We're talking 12 to 1,700 vertical feet and a very short distance," said Matthew Langhorst, the public works director for the City of Glenwood Springs. "The soils have basically become super saturated. And once they hit a point and the snowpack is melted into them, they become liquid. And they basically float down the hill and collect at the bottom, gathering trees and rocks and anything else along the way."
Tuesday morning's debris flow blocked some roads and train tracks – that's cleaned up now, but there's still a lot of work to be done. The city said they have partnerships with several firms and agencies in the area who have helped them out, but there's still challenges with getting everything cleaned up.
"I think for us, some of the challenges are just having enough infrastructure and equipment and staffing to be able to respond," said Beverli Marshall, the Glenwood Springs city manager. "Just having the equipment and the ability the people to deploy has been part of the challenge."
Even though the debris at the bottom of the mountain isn't causing major problems right now, the city said it needs to be cleaned up in order for future mitigation efforts to happen. But for now, they have to wait for the snow to finish melting, otherwise they said any mitigation work is in jeopardy of another debris flow.
"Obviously, there's still snow," said Marshall. "As it warms up, that's going to turn into water, which then is going to continue to come down the hill. So to some extent, we have to wait for all of that to go away so that we can clean it up and then start the mitigation process."
"This will be a long term process until we get the mitigation efforts in. And how long it will take to clean up is highly unknown," said Langhorst.
The city also stressed that they don't want people hiking Red Mountain until they say it's safe to do so.
"It's an active situation," said Marshall. "We don't need people up there trying to hike, even if it looks good, because you can't really see what's going on on top of the mountain. So until we are able to say that it's safe, then people just need to stay away."
Marshall said on Thursday, May 4, the Glenwood Spring City Council plans to discuss funding for the cleanup and mitigation work, and whether to ask the state and FEMA for financial help. She said they won't the exact amount of money needed for mitigation efforts until the cleanup is done.
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