- Feb 18, 2025
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Following a mud slide on Sunday, May 14, teams closed the gates to the upper reaches of SR 504/Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. (Photo from Washington State Department of Transportation).
( Photo from Washington State Department of Transportation).
BY MICKI GAMEZ.
KIRO Newsradio Traffic Reporter.
Days prior to the 43rd anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption, a mudslide wiped out a whole roadway and closed a popular traveler site.
Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) representative Tamara Greenwell said a massive mudslide Sunday night was so big it destroyed the 85-foot Spirit Lake Outlet Bridge and closed the roadway at milepost 43.
Eleven people and a dog were left by helicopter after being stranded overnight on the far side of the Johnston Ridge observatory.
11 individuals, pet dog rescued at Mount St. Helens after mudslide obstructs roadway.
" We discovered that there were some folks caught on the other side [of the mountain], and Skamania County and King County helped with the rescue of several people who are all safe now," Greenwell stated.
" Monday morning, our crews got much better eyes on the slide ... what we're calling an enormous landslide. It took out an 85-foot bridge structure entirely," Greenwell continued. And I was able to see sort of tangled and mangled bridge rebar.
The damage was so bad that teams might not evaluate the length of time the repairs would take.
" We got some drone video of it yesterday to get a broad scope of what we're handling," Greenwell said. "So, there's still a great deal of work and security assessment that needs to be done before we can develop a plan to resume the roadway.".
Among the greatest impacts is on the Johnston Ridge observatory because the wiped-out roadway takes visitors to the center; additionally, a few of the buildings have reportedly lost access to the power grid.
Greenwell thinks this occasion will affect tourist in the short term; however, folks can still go up to Mount St. Helens, just absolutely nothing past milepost 43.
" I was up there the other day, there are some stunning lookout points that you can manage at, to see the mountain," Greenwell said. "And I believe, you understand, as long as folks are keeping away from sort of the upper area of the highway, they'll still be tourists increasing there.".
It's too soon to state the cause of the landslide, but the initial evaluation from geotechnical engineers is that the unseasonably hot temperature levels significantly melted the snowpack which then oversaturated the soils - - loosening it enough to cascade down the mountain and taking out the bridge.
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