More hillside slippage at Yeager Airport

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More of the unstable hillside at the end of the Yeager Airport came sliding down on Monday. However, the incident was not unexpected.

“The engineers have indicated this would happen and needs to happen,” said Yeager Airport Spokesman Mike Plante. “The material that is still on the slope needs to finish settling and come down, in fact if it doesn’t come down on it’s own, they’ll have to find a way mechanically to restore the slope.”

The newest slide on Sunday evening was not the first since the massive hillside collapse March 12 which buried one house, destroyed a church, and caused a blockage of Elk Two Mile Creek which flooded more than two dozen homes. However, Sunday’s movement was the most significant in recent days.

“It spread out at the bottom on both sides and into the road a bit,” said Plante. “Elk Two Mile Creek which has been our primary concern has been holding well and water is moving through there quite efficiently.”

Plante said the material which gave way was part of the original slide and no new ground on the man-made hillside had given way. He added there was no new property damage resulting from the newest slippage and no homes were threatened.

Engineers continue to ponder what action will be necessary to repair the massive slide, but they still haven’t made any final conclusions on what repairs will be needed.

“There still working on ways to begin mitigating it as soon as possible. They’re still trying to figure out the best way to go about that while this thing is still in flux,” said Plante.