San Miguel Sheriff anticipates future mudslides on Highway 145 after 5 in past week

SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — Crews in San Miguel County have been busy tackling five mudslide incidents on Highway 145 this past week alone .

“We had a very large mudslide, earlier this week,” said Sgt. Lance Masters with the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office. “Yesterday, we had three different mudslides all along Highway 145 in a fairly short period of time. I’d almost qualify that in saying that there was kind of a fourth one in that; one of the mudslides yesterday slid again during the cleanup process.”

Usually, this is around when their monsoon season hits, and just looking at how things are going, the sheriff’s office said they can expect more mudslides in the next few days. As they look ahead to the weekend, Masters is reminding the community to be cautious when traveling to and from Telluride on Highway 145.

“It’s important to make sure somebody knows where you are and where you’re going in case something does happen like you get swept up off of the road,” Masters said.

He said it’s also important to be vigilant when driving, and if you do see a mudslide happen, stop and call 911.

“I wouldn’t suggest trying to navigate the slide because you don’t know what you’re getting into next and you don’t know what the conditions may be,” Masters said.

He said mudslides can also trigger large boulders to fall which could hit your car, and proceeding through the slide, no matter how deep or how fast, could cause you to become swept off the road.

“In Colorado, going off the road, especially in the western half of the state, is a really, really bad thing.”

Patience requested by drivers stuck on Highway 145

Once crews have arrived on the scene, the No. 1 thing Masters emphasizes is patience.

“I think all too often when we’re commuting, when we’re trying to get home, when we’re trying to get to our destination, we sometimes prioritize that mission above our own safety,” he said.

On Thursday, Masters supervised the mudslide cleanup and witnessed something similar, where people attempted to go around the impasse using their own routes and detours.

“Going around and trying to find a detour when we have an approved one is just going to jeopardize you,” he said.

In fact, Masters said beyond the first slide, there were several more that drivers would get stopped behind.

“Well, that creates problems because we need to facilitate the logistics of the sweepers, of the front end loaders of CDOT and Road and Bridge going to and from so they can clean everything up and now all the sudden I have 70 cars that have lined up,” Master said.

Once the rain starts again in a situation like that, he said suddenly it becomes a hazard.

“Now, I have people that are actually in the slide zone that I have to get out of there.”

Other things that go along with that, he said, are staying up-to-date by following their Facebook page, instead of flagging down crews who are working.

“We’re stretched thin already in these incidents,” Masters said. “When you’re honking your horn at us, if you’re waving us down, you know, we want to make sure that no one is having an emergency in there and to field these questions which are just not important in that moment… you are going to slow it down.”

In the meantime, Masters said this all comes down to safety and getting the road open in an efficient manner.

“Be patient. Trust that we’re doing everything that we can as efficiently as we can to get you on your way, but we also have to be mindful of your safety and our safety as well as the safety of our CDOT and Road and Bridge employees.”

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