WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. — Neighbors on Whidbey Island are once again cleaning up after a massive natural disaster.
They live on Campers Row -- a community along the Sound with a long history of landslides that’s only accessible by private walkway.
This weekend, two more homes below the bluff there were destroyed, bringing the total to four in less than three months.
Judy Sladky was just inches from losing everything when one of those homes -- right next to hers -- was all but crushed by the hillside above.
So Sunday, neighbors are making sure there's nothing left to lose.
"We're kind of trying to talk her into taking a bit more out of the house -- and all the neighbors have storage for her, although it is a little dangerous, this happens really fast, ten seconds and bam this stuff is down,” Stacie Burgua explained.
She and several others were working inside the caution tape wrapped around Judy’s property.
Slides have happened countless times over the last 100 years and numerous times just since December.
That's when we first met Judy; a slide had just destroyed another neighboring home.
It damaged a small cabin as well. People on this part of Whidbey Island have come to expect it.
"Oh yeah, I sleep very lightly,” another neighbor told us.
Residents, the county, and Puget Sound Energy have all hired geologists to analyze the continuously eroding hillside.
In the meantime, neighbors are diverting water away from Judy's property.
She's one of the few full-timers on Campers Row -- and one of the only ones home when this happened.
Now she's wondering if her home will be next; everyone here is wondering who will be next.
“We’re just grateful for every day we are here -- and when the mud starts to flow it's time to leave,” Peter Vangiesen concluded.
The county hasn't condemned Judy's home -- she's leaving on her own.
Neighbors tell us they are responsible for cleaning up their properties themselves.
KIRO
