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Mabel Lake road looked more like Mabel
Lake mud bog after huge mud slides occurred on June 12, 1990.
At Everett's, one mile west of Falls Creek, appeared the first signs that
something was wrong. In the early evening their creek had overflowed and washed down their
driveway, totally destroying it. That night a "debris torrent" (a mass of mud
and debris rapidly flowing downhill) washed around their house and destroyed a work shop.
The roof was found on the other side of the highway with all the contents scattered
around.
Four Hydro power lines took some serious abuse as a fifty-foot-high wall of mud and rocks
crashed into them. It took over a week to totally restore the lines.
By Falls Creek a horendous number of logs were scattered over the road and a large deposit
of sand was placed on and near the highway. A small house near Falls Creek was placed on
the highway almost unharmed about 200 yards from its original spot.
Klaus Hammann's large work shop (one mile west of Falls Creek) was totaly demolished into
a pile of ruble by a mud slide and a few large boulders.
A new creek formed just 1/2 mile east of Falls Creek at about 8:00 on June 13 and with it
a slide washed a number of trees and mud onto the road and a neighbouring field. The field
is covered with about 3 to 4 feet of mud, which can still be seen today. Farther up that
creek, huge gorges were formed and large clearings made. It is no wonder why so much
damage took place because when the slide occurred a ten-foot wall of mud (indicated by the
mud on the remaining trees) by about 100 feet wide shoved its way from several miles above
the powerline all the way to the river at the bottom of the valley.
Just east of that creek an existing creek washed a pile of mud onto the road (5 to 15 feet
deep in places) and then within about one hour the creek eroded the road away creating a
20 foot wide and deep gorge of 15 feet.
The creeks in the slide area took the most damage though. Falls Creek had a 200 to 300
foot wide path literally torn out by the slides; several hundred-tonne rocks and over 300
trees were tossed around and dumped in various places.
Many other creeks were also damaged. Each creek cleared a 40 to 80 foot wide path right
down to bedrock and displaced large boulders and trees.
Cause of the Slides
The primary cause of the slides was the incredible amount of rainfall in such a short
time. The next morning all the creeks were about 6-10 times their original size because
within about twenty hours on June 12 over 6 inches of rain had fallen and previous to that
it had rained steadily for a month which saturated the soil in the mountains and valleys.
Another major factor in the occurence of mud slides is the build-up of soil in the creek
beds. Over the years (50-100) fallen trees and plants build up in the creek beds until
there is a large of rainfall and everything dams up then washes down.
Evacuation
Most families left the area on June 13. In the early morning many families left on foot or
drove out but after about ten o'clock that was impossible and the remaining 25 to 30
families were air-lifted out. Accommodations were made at Fortunes Landing Motor Inn, and
with friends and relatives.
Many people feared looting of the houses from the publicity since the road was open the
day after the slides, and most people's houses were unoccupied. A neighborhood watch group
was formed to check the incoming vehicles.
Further Trouble
Even though by June 13 everything looked fairly calm, there was a lot of fear that the
four to six feet of snow-pack on the mountain would melt very readily and cause more
slides and flooding. This proved to be wrong since no further slides occured. The reason
for this is that the actual mud didn't come from the creeks, it came from the surrounding
hillside and it all accumulated in the creek ravine. The creek only contributed to the
slide activity, it didn't start it.
Erik Swanson
AlF School 1989