Early post-mudslide video shows a wet, sloughing scarp

OSO — A cellphone video shot about 15 minutes after the Oso mudslide shows the hill continuing to collapse and water pouring from the newly exposed earth.

The video, which hasn’t been made public until now, provides a fresh look at the natural forces at work, and to a geologist, shows just how saturated that hillside was when it flowed down into the valley and destroyed a neighborhood. The mudslide killed 43 people on March 22, 2014.

Darrington resident Elizabeth Honnerlaw’s video of the exposed slope is only three minutes long.

The video clearly shows just how saturated the hillside was, said David Montgomery, a geomorphologist at the University of Washington.

Understanding how groundwater from nearby creeks, the North Fork Stillaguamish River and rain moves through the slide area is one of the questions scientists are trying to answer.

The gushing water, which looks like white streaks in the video, could have been connected to the hydrologic system of Headache Creek, just northeast of the slide area, Montgomery said.

The grainy video shows the newly exposed hillside continuing to slough off large blocks of dark-colored earth and rock. On the right, northeastern edge of the slope, streams of water pour out of the exposed hillside. Each new piece that falls reveals darker earth below, a sign of how saturated the soil was, Montgomery said.

“It’s what happens when you expose a fairly steep, unconsolidated face that’s wet,” Montgomery said.

Scientific research done so far hypothesizes that the rainiest winter in years was the major factor in causing the hillside to collapse into a deadly torrent.

“What kind of rainfall signal does a slope like that really respond to?” Montgomery said.

Elizabeth Honnerlaw, 56, and her daughter Jaclyn, 33, were in their car headed westbound on Highway 530 from their home. It was a little before 11 a.m. and traffic was stopped. They saw the road ahead blocked by water and debris.

“We were supposed to have left earlier, so we were detained a bit,” Jaclyn Honnerlaw said. The slide happened at 10:37 a.m. They were about four vehicles back from the debris and could see a house in the middle of the road.

Elizabeth Honnerlaw grabbed her phone and started shooting. What she recorded might be the earliest imagery of the slide scarp after the event. She shot several short videos that morning.

“When we went into the field, we could still see some of the mountain coming down,” with water running from the side, Jaclyn Honnerlaw said.

Loggers and others from the Darrington area rushed into the debris field looking for survivors. Their chain saws are clearly audible in the video.

In a video she took just as she got to the debris field, Elizabeth Honnerlaw’s voice reveals the shock she felt at what she saw.

“The whole side of the mountain is gone. We have tons of people’s houses demolished. People trapped. I’m going to go see if I can help.”