April 23, 2003 – Heavy rains and saturated topsoil are being blamed for a landslide that wiped out a retaining wall below a house along Centerline Road on eastern St. John.
Scattered bits of wire fencing, cinder block and PVC pipe were all that remained of the wall Tuesday night. Ira Wade, St. John's deputy Public Works commissioner, said the homeowner was urged to leave the premises then because of safety concerns.
Wade said on Wednesday that he had learned around 6 p.m. Tuesday of "a landslide at Mamey Peak along Centerline Road." He said the homeowner, Janice Lord, was contacted and "we advised her she should vacate the area for the night because there might have been more rain."
On Wednesday morning, Wade and personnel from the St. John Administrator's Office and the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency were on site assessing the situation and directing traffic. Backhoes and dump trucks were called to the scene to clear away the debris.
Wade said Planning and Natural Resources Department personnel would determine whether the house can be occupied safely under the circumstances.
Lawrence Clovis, caretaker for the home, said the wire and cinder block retaining wall was built last year. Government authorities were considering the construction of a new retaining wall to stabilize the house above the area where the landslide occurred.
The landslide was of topsoil from between two rock formations that probably lost stability after being saturated by the rain that had fallen over the previous five days, Wade said. "This is a unique situation," he said, while also noting that rockslides and mudslides during periods of heavy rain are not uncommon along Centerline Road between Bordeaux Mountain and Coral Bay.
Wade said he expects more slides along the roadway if the rains continue. But he said it's unlikely that any other houses would be endangered, because most are farther away from the edge of the hillside.
National Weather Service forecasters gave the territory a 50 percent chance of more rain on Wednesday.
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