Major mudslide closes Highway 95

March 22, 2017

Lani Christiansen photo ITD workers faced a daunting task Tuesday night as they began work to reopen Highway 95, with a wall of mud eight to 10 feet deep and about 25 yards across to move.

Boundary County was hit once again by a mudslide Tuesday evening that shut down travel on U.S. 95, this one the most significant since the major slides of 20 years ago. The hillside on the north side of the highway came down in a rush just south of Mountain Meadows Road near mile 498 at about 8:39 p.m., trapping a car that was driving through and inundating both lanes with a bank of mud, trees and debris in a swath estimated to have been 25 feet across and eight to 10 feet deep. Fortunately, the driver of the vehicle was not injured and was able to get free of her car the the mud that engulfed it. As sheriffs deputies, South Boundary Fire and Boundary Ambulance rallied quickly to the scene to shut down the highway and attend to the victim, Idaho Transportation Department maintenance crews began gathering the heavy equipment necessary to not only begin clearing the highway, but also to determine if there were any additional vehicles trapped under the debris. Fortunately, there weren't. Working in a moderate downpour, the vehicle was removed from the mud at about 10:43 p.m. and ITD crews were able to begin work clearing the roadway and to restore one alternating lane of traffic through the slide area at about 6:02 a.m. Wednesday. At one point just before 10 p.m., workers had to fall back, as it appeared that the hillside was about to slip again. As of 2:30 p.m., flaggers are still guiding traffic on that single lane. Exacerbating the traffic woes, Boundary County Road and Bridge personnel were forced to close the main detour route around the Highway 95 slide, Deep Creek Loop, at about 12:11 a.m. Wednesday after a fissure opened up in the roadway near the railroad trestle near Mirror Lake Golf Course and portions of the roadway went under water, limiting access around the slide to a single rough route via Mountain Meadows Road at the north end of the slide to Green Pasture and Trail Creek Roads, back to Highway 95 at Naples. Deep Creek Loop remains closed at this hour. Shortly after 5 a.m., school district officials made the decision to run buses on all but Deep Creek Loop and open schools on schedule. By the time buses started rolling, the traffic situation changed, forcing southbound drivers to change plans, but the majority of the county's public school students were delivered safely to school on time. There are currently no estimates as to when Highway 95 will be fully open, nor as to when Deep Creek Loop can be reopened. With the National Weather Service extending the currently existing flood warning to noon Saturday just a minute before the current warning was set to expire at noon today as forecasters predict another moderate to heavy rain event Thursday night and into Friday, there is a better than fair chance that conditions will get worse before they get better. On Tuesday, Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter signed a disaster declaration for Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, Benewah, Shoshone, Latah and Clearwater Counties, allowing state assistance in the recovery and opening the way for counties to receive federal assistance.

NewsBF photo The denuded hillside near Mountain Meadows Road that greeted motorists as Highway 95 reopened to one lane of alternating traffic Wednesday morning.