Mudslide at Covenant calls into question the wisdom of development on steep slopes

At approximately six o’clock early Monday morning, September 21, a large slide of mud and rock broke loose from the mountainside just below Covenant College and crashed across Scenic Highway.   The landslide exposed gaslines, almost destabilized important college electrical equipment, and came close to the foundation of the newly opened Brock Hall.  Both the Chapel and Brock Hall were evacuated.

The images below do not convey the full scope of the event because the slide closed Scenic Highway to all traffic, and it was difficult to reach the site until Georgia Department of Transportation crews had cleared much of the damage.  According to a witness to the landslide, the highway was covered with boulders up to five feet high amid three-foot deep mud.  A passing driver caught in the landslide had his truck crushed against the guardrail by the avalanche of boulders.  The truck was lifted airborne and almost tossed over the guardrail down the mountainside.  He had to be extracted from his vehicle when crews arrived on the scene.  The huge boulders, according to a witness, were loaded into dump trucks and taken away from the site.

The landslide occurred just above the steep mountainside that has been proposed for the Chapelbrow subdivision.

The east side of Lookout Mountain collapsed in another area Sunday night south of the city.  A large twenty-foot paved section of Dougherty Gap Road slid thirty feet down the mountain.  Crews were unable to attempt repairs or clearing because the whole left lane continued sliding down onto them as they reached the area.  David Ashburn, Walker County Coordinator, said that the County cannot at this point determine the stability of large areas of the road and that it will be closed indefinitely.  Large portions of Scenic Highway on the east side of the Mountain have collapsed numerous times.  

Surely this is an argument for the fragility of the Mountain and for not building on steep slopes.

See “Our Fragile Mountain” by Peggy Laney in OPINION.

See also “Erosion closes Scenic Highway” and  “Repairs To Close Scenic Highway” in ARTICLES archives.

See “Rock Slide Shuts Down U.S. 64” in UPDATES and “High risk from rocks” in ARTICLES archives.

Photographs can be viewed in full format by clicking once on the thumbnail image.

The mudslide below Covenant College is pictured in the first three rows of images.

A partial view of the collapse of Dougherty Gap Road is pictured in the last two rows.  There are no images of the tangle of trees, asphalt, and rocks that slashed a scar down the mountain below the dirt slide in these pictures; it was too far away, and the climb down too treacherous.