SLIDE LEAVES 395 STUCK IN THE MUD

It was like something out of an Irwin Allen disaster movie. Heavy rains hammering the canyon area near Dunmovin’, a small, unincorporated community just north of Coso Junction, sent a wall of mud and debris estimated to be some 200 yards wide and four feet deep oozing over a sizable section of U.S. 395 just south of Olancha on Thursday.

The slide was strong enough to push a semi-tractor trailer off the highway, trap other large trucks and vehicles in the mud and snarl the traffic flow in both directions for hours. Caltrans said closures were immediately implemented at the Coso Rest Area and Olancha, as well as on Hwy 190, the result of a washout just west of Panamint Springs.

Caltrans and Inyo County crews worked feverishly to clear the roadway late into Thursday. Though the work was arduous and slow going, Caltrans reported Friday morning that traffic was being escorted through in both directions, and further that Hwy 190 had been cleared and reopened.

The slide brought back reminders of a similar event in July 2008, when severe thunderstorms dumped torrential rain on a fire-scarred part of the Eastern Sierra and triggered a mudslide. That wall of mud and muck measured 300 yards wide and up to 3 feet deep. It too closed U.S. 395 for many hours, and also damaged about 50 homes near Independence.

Another slide in the Inyokern area in summer 1988 turned out to be deadly, carrying a vehicle off the road, and trapping and killing the two occupants inside.

In addition to this recent mudslide, weather was also a problem further south of the area as well. Flash flooding also fouled up traffic on Mojave Desert roads, as a volatile mix of high heat mixed with moisture sparked big thunderstorms. –Sheet Staff/Sierra Wave