At some time this morning, after we received almost 2 3/4" of rain in the last 36 hours, the hillside below our (actually, my ex's) driveway gave way and a huge amount of rock and mud slid into mostly the backyard, partially into a corner of the shop and into the side of a 10'x12 garden shed. The portion of the hillside that gave way was probably about 60' wide, 30' high and 15' deep into the hillside. Needless to say, the back yard is a mess. Appears to be minimal damage to the shop and garden shed.
The side effect of the mudslide is it redirected a ton of water to the front of the house. It was flowing under the front porch from one side and not coming out the other. Not sure where it's going. It's possible there's a drain under the front porch we don't know about. The guy who built the place put a lot of pretty effective drains around the property. It took several hours of the two of us digging with just shovels in 2' of mud to create channels to redirect the water from the front of the house. But, we finally did it.
However, a small amount of water did enter the basement and created some fairly minor damage in the utility room. It was confined to that room for the most part but some water did seep under a wall into one of the bedrooms. Carpet is slightly damp in a very small spot.
Naturally, this is one of those things insurance doesn't cover.
A potentially bigger problem is another slide area on the access road to our property and one other home above us. It gave way all the way over to the edge of the travel portion of the road. Any more and it's going to take some major work with heavy equipment to excavate a jog in the hillside to keep the road passable.
This all happened on the day before I'm leaving for OK. Just to be on the safe side I took the fully loaded 26' U-Haul truck down to my neighbor's place. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it out tomorrow. I still have my pickup/flatbed trailer to get out so I'm hoping there's still a road in the morning.
It's a lot for the ex to handle by herself. But I close on my house on Tues and have to be there. Not a lot I could do anyway. This is beyond my ability to fix, unfortunately.
The first thing people always say when I tell them I'm going to OK is "tornado". Well, this is just proof shit can happen anywhere.
I'll post up some pictures as soon as I can. It's a mess.
