Mitigating Landslides Post Hurricane Helene
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Collapse ▲Landslides
During Hurricane Helene our area was hit with almost 2000 landslides. A landslide is basically the downhill movement of soil or rock from an overly steep slope. This movement can happen slowly with the hillside quietly but inexorably moving down slope. Or, the failure can be catastrophic, sending tons and tons of rocks, soil and debris racing downhill as we saw recently during Hurricane Helene.
Landslides and rockfalls are part of living in mountains everywhere. Did you know that these Appalachian Mountains that we live in once were the height of the Himalayan Mountains? Mount Mitchell was once as tall as Mount Everest? Where did all that material go? It was eroded away and flushed down the rivers over millions of years. The Appalachians are still eroding away, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly but always diminishing. Big landslides are just the most visible aspect of this process.
Geologist Phillip Prince Explains Landslides
A Problem That is Usually Too Big
If you have a landslide on your property repairing it can be an extensive project and expensive. Even small landslides can cost thousands of dollars to mitigate. Larger landslides can cost hundreds of thousand to millions of dollars to repair. Most homeowners do not have that kind of money. Sometimes insurance companies will not cover repairing landslides. So, many landslides are too big for normal people to mitigate.
Repairing Smaller Landslides
Repairing Larger Landslides
Repairing large landslides is often going to be outside the abilities of someone to repair on their own. It an be very expensive as well. Eventually, when evaluating a landslide, it will become necessary to employ an engineer. Of course there are many kinds of engineers. A structural engineer or civil engineer are likely the most helpful consultants in this case but maybe a soil engineer will be required as well. Again, check with the local zoning department to see if a building permit is required.
Once the site is evaluated and a plan is engineered, repairs can begin. Typically, robust engineered retaining walls are required. Large equipment and many truckloads of fill dirt are needed. Again, this can all be very expensive.
Government Programs Are Not Available
We are not aware of a government program that will pay for landslide repair. DOT is the only agency that might stabilize a landslide if it directly impacts a state maintained road. It seems that mostly, homeowners are responsible for repairs with possible help from insurance companies and FEMA.
