John Petrucka with La Plata County Road and Bridge operates a front-end loader Wednesday to remove mud and debris that covered East Animas Road (County Road 250). The road reopened Wednesday after closing March 22 when mud and rocks from the Missionary Ridge slide covered the road north of Durango.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
A cyclist looks at the debris flow from the Missionary Ridge rockslide on Tuesday as it crosses East Animas Road (County Road 250). Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide flows across East Animas Road (County Road 250). In places, it is about 10-feet deep. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide flows across East Animas Road (County Road 250). Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide flows across East Animas Road (County Road 250). Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide flows across East Animas Road (County Road 250). In places, it is about 10-feet deep. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide flows across East Animas Road (County Road 250). In places, it is about 10-feet deep. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide flows across East Animas Road (County Road 250). In places, it is about 10-feet deep. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Charlie Brown, a resident on East Animas Road (County Road 250), looks at the debris flow from the Missionary Ridge rockslide Tuesday as it comes across a driveway and into an irrigation ditch. The debris flow, made of mud, rocks and trees, is about 10-feet deep where it crosses East Animas Road, which has been closed since Friday night. “I left home on Friday and drove through a little bit of debris on the road and it wasn’t a problem,” Brown said. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide has filled the ditch that was dug on the west side of East Animas Road (County Road 250) to carry the mud and rocks down to the Animas River. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide has filled the ditch that was dug on the west side of East Animas Road (County Road 250) to carry the mud and rocks down to the Animas River. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide has filled the ditch that was dug on the west side of East Animas Road (County Road 250) to carry the mud and rocks down to the Animas River. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Snow melts on the Missionary Ridge rockslide on the east side of the Animas Valley on Tuesday carrying down tons of debris onto East Animas Road (County Road 250) closing the road indefinitely. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide flows down on the east side of East Animas Road (County Road 250) covering the road with rocks, mud and trees. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide has filled the ditch that was dug on the west side of East Animas Road (County Road 250) to carry the mud, trees and rocks down to the Animas River. Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Debris from the Missionary Ridge rockslide flows across East Animas Road (County Road 250). Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Charlie Brown, who lives close to the debris flow from the Missionary Ridge rockslide, uses binoculars to get a good look as the slide on Tuesday from East Animas Road (County Road 250). Photo by Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Courtesy of Butch Knowlton<br>This is one of three cars that tried to go around a blockade on East Animas Road (County Road 250) and got stuck in a mudslide.
East Animas Road reopened Wednesday after county crews were able to clear the onslaught of mud and debris slides.
Butch Knowlton, La Plata County’s director of the Office of Emergency Management, said the mud and silt that spilled onto the road was too wet to haul away until now.
“If we put it in a dump truck, all that mud and silt would leak out over the road,” he said.
Knowlton estimated that 400 dump truck loads were required to open the northbound and southbound lanes.
Butch Knowlton, La Plata County’s director of Office of Emergency Management, said mud and debris slides this spring dumped the most amount of material on East Animas Road in recent memory. The road opened Wednesday after being closed for almost a month.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
Knowlton said the recent mudslide contained the most material the county has ever hauled from East Animas Road, and the closure was the road’s longest.
While the threat of flooding from snowmelt is mostly gone, Knowlton said the risk of debris slides is not.
This spring, snowmelt has moved massive amounts of material, and if the area gets heavy rainfall, more mud, rock and debris could come down.
Roy Smith, left, and Robert Glasgow, both with La Plata County Road and Bridge, clear a culvert of mud Wednesday as crews prepare to open East Animas Road (County Road 250). Crews have been unable to haul debris because it has been too wet, county officials said.
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
“Thousands of tons of material that slid down off the face of the rockslide is now parked at the toe end of the rockslide,” he said. “Now, there’s a lot of material that could be readily mobilized by heavy rain.”
The original rockslide occurred July 5, 1998, when a chunk of the upper hillside gave way, sending house-size boulders down Missionary Ridge. About 10 homes continue to be affected by runoff issues.
Knowlton said emergency officials are monitoring the weather for incoming storms that might present flood danger.
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