NORTH SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - City leaders are now working on a plan to demolish a neighborhood.
The Springhill neighborhood is sitting on top of a landslide that is slowly twisting and breaking homes.
The slide has been slowly moving for more than a decade and has claimed five homes.
The homes were twisted and contorted by the movement to the point where they were declared unsafe.
This disaster in slow motion is picking up speed. According to the Utah Geological Survey, some areas of the slide are now moving one-to-two inches a week.
Toby Sausado can’t see the ground moving in his backyard, but he can see the result – half of his yard has dropped and his deck has shifted a foot and a half away from his house.
And inside the house, he can hear the movement in the occasional snaps and pops. One evening recently the pop was especially loud.
He went to investigate in his finished basement and discovered that the concrete foundation had buckled and split open. “This was a room, but we don't use it as a room anymore,” lamented Toby. He believes his family will have to move out before next winter. “We're definitely looking for a new home."
The state has hired an engineering firm to do an assessment of the slide. In turn, the city hopes to use that assessment to land a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help buy out homeowners and level their houses.
The details are being worked out.
In the meantime, the non-profit El Nino Foundation is raising money to help relocate people in the slide zone who's homes are no longer safe.
The foundation is accepting donations. For more information,
click here.
