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Homeowners worry about more mudslides

MUKILTEO, Wash. — John Grosso admits that part of the price he and his wife pay for their spectacular Mukilteo view is worrying that nature won't allow it to stay.

"I lay awake at night wondering," he said.  "Okay wind, don't blow too much because I don't want you blowing over a tree."

But it is the ground the trees are anchored in that has been their greatest source of worry.  And it gave way, in the middle of hard rain both Friday and Saturday.

“And this area here was just saturated," said Grosso.  "And the dirt on that wall is just bare. And we just had a mudslide. It was just a bunch of mud collected. The water saturated it. It got too heavy and down it went."

This winter had been kind to Grosso and his neighbors, especially after last winter's catastrophic mudslides that seemed to shut down the railroad tracks below nearly every week.

"No, I'm not going to worry."

Pete Botting thinks his location provides some comfort.

"Our bank's a little different here in that it's not a straight down bank," Botting said. "It's got a little bit of a repose to it."

And even Grosso, whose property is higher on the hill and closer to Friday's slide, is a bit of a fatalist about it all, too.

"They say the track was there 100 years ago and it hasn't moved back very far," Grosso said.  "So we could move back another 20 or 30 feet, still doesn't affect the house and we still have a yard."

Just how much yard, he can't say.

And there is still more rain in the forecast.