Rains Cause Mudslides In Oak Creek Canyon

By Laurel Morales
July 08, 2014
Many
Laurel Morales
Many residents and business owners have barricaded their doors with sandbags in anticipation of mudslides.

Over the last few days rain has fallen on the Slide Fire burn area in Oak Creek Canyon and caused mudslides. So far no one has been hurt and no buildings destroyed, but many who live in the canyon are on edge.

Driving down the switchbacks through Oak Creek Canyon, visitors may not initially notice signs of a 21,227-acre fire. That’s until you see the yellow tape and barricades blocking the picnic areas and hiking trails. Catch a glimpse of the creek and you’ll see it’s flowing the color of coffee. The recent rains have pushed ash down the steep slopes into the popular waterway.

Sedona Fire Chief Kris Kazian said Sunday’s short rain shower caused large rocks to come loose as well.  

“There’s very much an unpredictable and dynamic situation,” Kazian said. “So depending on the rain we get, if it’s a one-inch rain that passes over a fast period of time a short period of time if it sits up at the top isolated over one area. All those things can create different problems. One of the sheriffs said, ‘we’re kind of playing in a game that we don’t know the rules and we might not even even be sure which game we’re playing.’”

Gary
Laurel Morales
Gary Garland and his staff have dug channels in the hopes of draining any potential mudslide away from the property.

Fifty homes and businesses sit in the potential pathway of mudslides. Kazian said engineers helped almost all of them by installing concrete blockades called “jersey barriers” to divert the mudslides.

“However there are about 10 or 12 that they’ve identified that do have very little or limited or no real good mitigation capabilities,” Kazian said. “The houses may be located right at the bottom of the drain. And the force that’s expected off that drainage will far surpass any jersey barrier capabilities.”

He said the worst thing they could do is put a jersey barrier in a place where it’s going to be washed away, hurling a 3,000-pound battering ram downstream; causing problems for homes that weren’t on the threatened list.

About
Laurel Morales
About 50 homes and businesses sit in the potential pathway of mudslides. With the help of engineers, residents and business owners have installed jersey barriers and sandbagged areas around their home to divert the floods.

Arizona Game and Fish officials said the brown trout and other fish have survived the ash flow so far, but they continue to monitor. Public creek access and the forest are closed in the canyon but businesses remain open.

At the Butterfly Garden Inn, owner Nichole Garrison said she’s now used to the alarms going off every time it rains, but her guests are not.  

“It’s just been such an emotional roller coaster,” Garrison said. “I hate to say this but I just want the summer to be over. We just want to get through the summer and move into the fall where the weather won’t be a factor so we can just move forward.”

But authorities said the worst flooding events in Oak Creek Canyon have occurred in the winter when rain fell on snow. It could take up to five years before Garrison and her neighbors see the end of the Slide Fire impacts.