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{ 002259 M ~ M 0 RAN DUM ---------- TO: FR0I1 : DATE: SUBJECT: John W. Ro1d/Fi1e Wm. Pat Rogers 11arch 14, 1985 Hazard and Mitigation Work at Town of Red Cliff I recently became involved with DODES and Eagle County Emergency Services to begin some assistance to Red Cliff in installing a warning system for mudslides and some other longer-term hazard mitigation. As you know, CGS checked out the reported mudslides last spring in Red Cliff. They occurred during the rapid snowmelt in May. The area had not previously had such events in the approximately 60-year memory of residents I talked to. The debris flows occurred on the southeast-facing slope north of town and below the radio tower. The main action was on the central ravine that is about 2,000 feet long and has 1,200 feet of vertical fall. This means that the path has an average 60 percent slope and thus probably does not decelerate until it hits the street that exits on the north side of the high bridge over the Eagle River. There are a dozen or so houses that could be seriously affected and. several are directly in front of where the debris hits the roadway. There is a roadcut on both sides where the debris encounters the road, this acted as a drop structure and partial dam during the debris flows of 1984. A combination of this and intervention of town crews allowed most of the debris to flow northeasterly down the road and eventualli spread out without serious damage. Bob Kistner from DODES called me last week and I agreed to assist him and the County and Town officials in installing a warning system that had been successfully tested in Utah last year. I drove to Red Cliff with Bob on March 12th to look over the site and discuss it with the locals. As a result of this meeting I am committed to work with them on selecting locations for the various parts of the system and in installation of the alarm triggering mechanism. I have also committed the CGS to an overall assessment of the muds1ide and other hazards affecting the town. This will have to be done later when the snDW is gone and will be part of some possible longer term mitigation activities. All together the anticipated wDrk with Red Cliff will take about a month over the next six months. I will be doing the work on the alarm system and I'll probably call on Bruce Stover for the small mapping and mitigation opportunities study. This is very badly needed and worthwhile work that would not be possible on a cash funded basis with the affected community. The small attached map depicts the general situation I have observed or learned of regarding geologic hazards of concern to the Red Cliff community_ vtp Doc. 0346K - 73K