Creeping Landslide Puts N.Y. House on Precipice
KEENE VALLEY, N.Y. — On May 6, the iris garden alongside Jim and Charity Marlatts’ house on a mountain two hours north of Albany was cleaved by a small crack only two inches wide. It was the start of a natural catastrophe, one that is still unfolding at an excruciatingly slow pace.
The Marlatts’ treasured glass-and-wood retirement home is now on the scarp — the geologic term for the edge above — of the largest landslide in New York State history. About 82 acres of earth is slipping downhill and taking trees, rocks and houses with it.
But unlike the landslides that occur in a rush as debris breaks free, usually after a torrential rain or earthquake, this one is occurring incrementally, moving from two inches to two feet per day. “It is like Chinese water torture,” Ms. Marlatt said, “drip by drip.”
Within weeks, the crack in the garden extended nearly a mile and as the land on the downhill slope began sliding away toward the valley, it created a step that is now a 20-foot vertical drop. Half of the flowers and half of the property beneath the [...]
That's right, it's not fires that often aren't covered, it's sinkholes. And, apparently, mudslides. Still, in places where floods and sinkholes are likely it seems like mandatory insurance should cover them.
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