Officials monitoring known slide area east of Oso

Published 1:30 am Saturday, February 17, 2018

OSO — State and county officials are monitoring a known slide area where cracking was reported Thursday.

A geologist visited the site and noted that the cracks were similar to those seen last year. The 2017 cracking and sliding prompted a five-day closure of Highway 530 between Darrington and Arlington, along with voluntary evacuation notices.

This time, it looks as though a small area could slide but would not reach the highway, according to an email from Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management Director Jason Biermann.

“Really it’s just a matter of monitoring at this stage and keeping on top of whatever the state monitoring efforts are,” said Kent Patton, a county spokesman. “If there were concerns that it threatened either roads or people, we would confer with folks to make recommendations, but at this stage it’s just monitoring.”

The Montague Creek slide area east of Oso is the site of a deep-seated and slow-moving slide. Last April, the closure of Highway 530 meant Darrington residents had a two-hour detour through Skagit County. That cracking and sliding occurred south of the highway and west of where 43 people were killed in the 2014 Oso mudslide.

This week’s cracking appears to be in the same general area, Patton said.