MONROE, Wash. — More than a hundred residents who live in a neighborhood near Monroe are cut off from the rest of the county after the private road to access their community became covered in mud.
There are 44 homes in the Skyview Estates development located near Ben Howard Road and 260th Avenue Southeast.
A geotechnical engineer told residents they might have to build a new road to where they live, and that construction could take a year. The Skyview Estates has been around for more than 30 years, but long-time residents said nothing like this has ever happened to their road.
Samantha Idle noticed an issue Thursday when a guard rail started to shift.
"We decided to go get some tarps to shed the water off it a little bit," Idle said. "We were gone about 15 minutes and the whole hillside was gone.”
Since then, it's been a river of mud so strong that it's not only covered the concrete, it shifted and cracked the concrete in some spots.
A geotechnical engineer said it could take a year before they have a road that's safe to drive on again.
“Our biggest concern is propane right now. A lot of the homes are heated by propane and our hot water... we don't have natural gas lines, but no truck can get up there to provide propane,” Idle explained.
About 120 residents are almost stranded. All-terrain-vehicles (ATV) or dirt bikes seem to be the only safe vehicles that can go up and down the road. Those in good health can do the one-mile steep walk, but cars that were up there when the slide happened are stuck, for now. Residents are trying to talk with some neighboring property owners about possibly allowing them to do an alternative way down.
Many residents aren't sure what this means for work or school come Monday. Idle has decided to bring her kids down on an ATV and have them stay with her mom until they figure out what's next.
“They're nervous," Idle explained. "They see their parents are stressed and they're going to stay there for a couple of days so we can get our thoughts together and try to come up with a plan."
Residents said they reached out for help from the county, but the situation is tricky because it is a private road. They said they were told with the county in a state of emergency there might be some resources available.