Landslide Lures TV Stations

By John Larson

SOCORRO - A small landslide that covered the road to the Magdalena Ridge Observatory on South Baldy Mountain created a minor media frenzy last Friday afternoon.
The site of the landslide, about two-thirds of the way up the road to the MRO, was visited by video crews from KRQE-TV, KOAT-TV, and KKOB-TV.
“It appeared that TV stations were in need of a weather related story for their newscasts,” New Mexico Tech Vice President Van Romero said. “I’m not sure how they got word of the landslide. We hadn’t released anything on it at the time.”
Romero said the rubble on the road – about 30 feet wide and up to five feet high – consisted of “good sized” rocks that had to be removed with a front loader. In the meantime, the six astronomers at the MRO were taking the matter into their own hands.
Eileen Ryan, Director of the 2.4 Meter Telescope, said the scientists walked across the rubble to a vehicle on the other side.
Two construction workers remained at the observatory.
“Bill Winn left about three minutes ahead of us, going down,” Ryan said. “He radioed back that there was a washout ahead and to be careful. By the time we got to that spot the landslide had happened.”
She said astronomer Bill Ryan was in the lead car and tried to drive over the landslide and became high centered on top.
“He got out a shovel, and we had a shovel and were able to shovel the middle portion down enough,” Ryan said. “Bill got to other side and took our vehicle back up and got a ride back down to the rubble. We ended up walking over it to get to the other side and the other vehicle.”
“It was kind of funny, there was so much publicity on it, because [things like that] are almost an everyday occurrence on the road,” she said.
Romero said the landslide was just part of having to continually perform maintenance on the seven mile mountain road.
He said New Mexico Tech’s Steve Wallace was radioed from the site to bring up a front loader to clear the road.
“The TV stations must have picked that up on the radio,” he said. “But whenever you drive up on mountain roads you know when you have heavy downpours a little of the mountain erodes. It comes with the territory,” he said. “This area was a little draw that got a heavy amount of rain in a short period of time.”
Romero returned to the landslide area Sunday to make sure the road was drivable.

Picture: MRO 2.4 meter telescope facility technician Craig Wallace-Keck stands on the landslide which prevented astronomers from driving down the mountain.

Courtesy photo

Landslide Lures TV Stations