Earthquake spares Carlyon Beach residences

LIONA TANNESEN, THE OLYMPIAN

THURSTON COUNTY -- Maybe Carlyon Beach residents -- victims of an ancient landslide that oozed back to life in 1999 -- already had their fair share of disaster.

Carlyon Beach homeowners said Sunday that Wednesday's earthquake didn't jar loose the landslide that left more than 40 neighborhood homes unlivable in 1999.

"So, about the movement, I think we just got what everybody else got -- a thorough shake," said homeowner Richard Brian.

Brian was in The Olympia Center when Wednesday's magnitude 6.8 earthquake rumbled through South Sound.

Brian said he watched tiles drop off the ceiling and glass shake but not break.

When Brian returned home, he noticed that his manufactured house had moved about an inch, his television had shifted 2.5 inches southwest -- he measured the dust -- and a few pictures had fallen off walls.

He also checked the cracks left in the ground by the landslide.

"I don't think anything here changed," Brian said as he looked at a line running down the hill Sunday.

The neighborhood is marked by the empty lots of demolished homes.

But the dry winter seems to have reattached the earth to the hill -- at least for now, Brian said.

Ken Koidahl of Vancouver and his family were checking up on and cleaning their vacation cabin.

The chunk of land Koidahl's cabin sits on dropped several feet in the landslide -- but the earthquake mostly opened cupboards and tossed cans off the shelves.

Koidahl's neighbor, Patrick Costello, also was checking on his vacation home.

Costello said he hadn't found any damage to the house, which the 1999 landslide barely missed.

"We were surprised there wasn't more damage," he said.

The landslide -- which inched toward the Sound for about four months -- took a greater emotional toll than the earthquake, Costello and Brian said.

With the quake, said Costello, "Any damage you had, it happened immediately."

Liona Tannesen covers crime and law enforcement for The Olympian. She can be reached at 754-5427.

The Olympian Copyright 2000

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