LOGAN, Utah (ABC 4 News) - At 11:45pm Saturday night Logan Police and Fire called off the search for a missing mother and her two children believed to be inside a home when it collapsed earlier in the day.
Logan Fire Chief Mark Meaker said the earth above the home is not stable enough to have search and rescue crews on site. He said they are switching from a rescue mission to recovery. But Meaker said it would be three to four days before they can start their search again because the ground would not be stable until then.
A canal adjacent to the Logan River broke at around 11:30 Saturday morning, sending water and mud into houses below.
It happened in the area of 922 East Canyon Road, also known as "The Island." Logan City Fire spokesperson Liz Hunsaker says one house collapsed. Officials did not know if anyone was inside when it collapsed, but a 39-year old mother and her two children, ages 12 and 13, are still unaccounted for.
Relatives say they saw the woman and her children go into the home minutes before the collapse, and their vehicles were still in the driveway. Officials say the woman had called her landlord to say water was coming inside the home. The landlord told her to get her children and leave. Officials say it was only minutes later when the collapse happened.
Logan City Police officials say 8 other homes were flooded, 11 homes suffered significant yard damage. Up to 50 people have been displaced by the mudslide.
The American Red Cross has set up a makeshift shelter at a church just down the street.
15 homes in the area and 20 people remained evacuated late Saturday, and Captain Jeff Curtis says they would stay evacuated until they are sure the area is stable.
Also late Saturday night, Logan City announced that all trail systems north of Canyon Rd, to 400 N and 600 E, to Logan Canyon are closed to all traffic until further notice. Officials say this area is extremely dangerous.
The slide also caused a natural gas leak, which utility crews eventually stopped. Power to the area was also shut off, but restored a short time later.
The canal was shut off at its origin, a dam at the mouth of Logan Canyon, to try to stop the flow of mud and water. It was running at full capacity when the slide happened. The canal is named the North and Logan Canal, and is made of concrete slabs where the slide happened. Those concrete walls are now gone, along with a lot of the dirt and rocks that used to line the canal.
Logan Mayor Randy Watts was meeting with family members affected by the slide late Saturday evening. Hundreds of volunteers showed up to clean up mud, rocks, and water that flowed beyond Canyon Road and into homes more that a block away.
This is not the first time this area has seen damaging mud slides.
In September 2005, at 975 Canyon Road just down the street from where the house collapsed on Saturday, a similar situation happened but on a much smaller scale.
In the 2005 canal break, mud and water burst through Dan Topol's basement window.
Thankfully nothing else was damaged, but the canal was shut down because of unstable conditions on the hillside below.
Check back with ABC 4 News and ABC4.com for the latest on this developing story.
