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Date: February 14, 1999
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Location: Upper Island Cove
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Easting: 334100
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Northing: 5279650
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Latitude: 47° 39' 00" N
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Longitude: 53° 13' 00" W
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Fatalities: 0
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Injuries: 0
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Source: Personal Observations by Martin Batterson, David
Liverman and David Taylor, Evening Telegram Monday Feb 15, 1999
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An 8 tonne block toppled from the top of a 100 m slope, rolled and
bounced roughly 150 m, struck a house, and landed on top of a car
parked beside the house. Debris from the house, notably the
chimney, damaged a second parked car - the rock fall occurred at
6:00 am. A resident within the house was knocked across the room
by the impact but was unhurt. Examination of the site by
government geologists and consultants with Newfoundland
Geosciences Ltd. allowed this incident to be well documented
(Newfoundland Geosciences 1999). The rock came from a wedge type
failure, and traveled down a direct path, bouncing and splitting
into two fragments at the base of the slope. A follow-up study
identified several other loose blocks that required stabilization
and suggested that risk of future rock fall was high. In response
to this hazard, protective measures were installed in the summer
of 1999.
News report.. 2/15/99 BY BERNIE BENNETT and MIKE FLYNN, The
Telegram, Upper Island Cove
Dorothy Crane has an unwelcome reminder in her driveway of what
might have been.
Her car, with one payment left on it, lies under a huge boulder
that swept a path of destruction through her home early Sunday
morning.
Crane, 46, was in her bed when the boulder the size of a car came
tumbling down from the top of the 250-foot mountain behind her
house around 6 a.m. The impact when it struck her home drove the
bed across the room.
The huge rock then passed through the front end of the house and
came to rest on her car with pieces of her bedroom dresser, brick
and siding strewn around it.
The four-tonne boulder had narrowly missed a nearby house
belonging to Kevin Mercer, demolished a small storage shed, then
gouged a one-metre trench in the ground, before bounding into the
two-storey home occupied by Crane and her mother, Greta, 76.
Incredibly, there were no injuries.
From her bedroom window close to the Crane home, Maggie McCann, 16,
saw it coming down the mountain.
"It was like thunder and when I opened the blind I saw the rock
coming towards our house," said Maggie. "I think I was in shock. I
couldn't move. The rock turned from coming our way after it struck
the shed out back. I just froze."
Her grandmother, Lorraine Coombs, said she never heard a sound
until she heard Maggie's scream.
"When Maggie came to her senses she started screaming and shouting,
telling us to get up because the mountain is coming down on us,"
said Coombs.
"I've been living there since September 1968 and there was never
anything like that before, except occasionally when people climb up
the mountain. And I don't know if I'm going back there again.
Definitely not today."
Dorothy and Greta Crane were too badly shaken to speak to the media
Sunday afternoon.
"We just got mom settled down now and she is resting," said Gordon
Crane, Greta's son. "She is badly shook up by it all. She didn't
know what happened. She thought it was a clap of thunder."
He said his sister, Dorothy, was still trembling. "They were
extremely lucky," said Crane. "(Dorothy) didn't know what it was
until she looked out and saw her car crushed under the rock."
Wanda Mercer said she doesn't know how the boulder missed her
home. "I think that when it hit the shed it changed direction a
bit. The house shook when he struck the ground, It was just a
miracle that it missed us."
The rock slide was believed to have been triggered by mild
weather. It forced the local fire department to evacuate 12
families from the area. Nearby roads were also immediately
closed. Fire Chief Doug Sharpe said he has never seen anything
like it. "They were extremely lucky," he said. "A doctor examined
the two women shortly afterwards, and both were found to be
uninjured but badly shaken." He described the evacuation as
orderly and said there were still a few families in the area who
were in no immediate danger.
"There is one elderly gentleman on the road with a severe heart
condition who would require an ambulance to be moved. But we
wouldn't hesitate to do whatever is necessary," he said. It is
not known how long residents will be out of their homes but the
fire department was to have escorted people back late Sunday for
essential supplies before settling in to maintain a watch all
night.
Area MHA John Efford, one of the first on the scene early Sunday
morning, said he couldn't believe the devastation. "Shortly after
I arrived, there were two more minor rock slides, and it was at
that point that the town's mayor, Warren Lynch, and I decided it
would be best to have people leave their homes."
Efford contacted the Emergency Measures Organization (EMO), which
sent an engineer to the town. It was then decided that the 12
families would not be allowed to return to their homes until a
geoscientist assessed the situation today.
"There are four families on that road who don't have relatives or
friends in the area," said Efford. "We've made arrangements for
them to stay at motels in Harbour Grace and Bay Roberts. There is
also one family that requires compassionate home care and that
will be provided." All costs will be paid by the Department of
Human Resources and Employment.
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