Kilbuck landslide destroys one home, threatens a second

March 02--Tom Tomaro said his family has lived along Kilbuck's Old Camp Horne Road for 50 years and the steep hillside above it never posed any problems until Sunday, when the earth began moving.

By Friday, a landslide had pushed a neighbor's house off its foundation and was slowly caving in the back wall of Tomaro's home.

"We were hoping we could do something to remediate it, but there's just too much water coming from up above," said Tomaro, a township supervisor. "I sure don't want to put anybody in danger. It's a house. It isn't worth anybody's life."

An entire section of ground continued moving Friday morning. It pushed trees and the home of Bill Farmer, who lives on the hill above Tomaro, farther down toward the street. A distinct cracking of breaking wood was audible from the road.

Harry Dilmore, the township manager, said Farmer's house is a total loss.

"The house is pretty much dirt-surfing," Dilmore said. "It's gone. We're surprised it's still standing. That house is probably 50 feet from where it was Monday."

Tomaro said his house will probably be destroyed, although he's hoping to save part of it and rebuild if the ground stabilizes.

"Right now it's a waiting game," Tomaro said.

A separate slide is pushing trees onto the roof of a home under construction farther down Old Camp Horne Road. Dilmore said Russ Hartzell recently closed on the property.

Dilmore said the ground keeps moving and geotechnical experts have told him that remediation must start from the top. Contractors are afraid to take heavy equipment up the hill for safety reasons, he said.

None of the damage caused by the landslide is covered by insurance. Standard homeowners' policies typically exclude slide damage.

Matt Brown, Allegheny County's chief of emergency services, said the county is plagued with dozens of landslides and has classified 12 to 15, including the one in Kilbuck, as significant.

Brown said officials have evacuated more than 25 homes countywide because of safety concerns. Two, including Farmer's home in Kilbuck and a house in Pittsburgh's West End, were destroyed.

The county and Pittsburgh are seeking disaster aid from the Pennsylvania Department of Emergency Management Agency, which receives its funding from Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Federal funding would be approved if collective damages across the state from any type of current disaster, including landslides, flooding and snow, total $18.5 million, Brown said.

In order for Allegheny County municipalities to receive funding for landslide cleanup, costs must exceed $4.5 million. Individual homeowners would qualify if at least 25 homes are impacted and 40 percent of the damages to those homes is uninsured, according to Brown.

He said he was unsure whether the state would exceed $18.5 million, but Allegheny County is getting close to meeting its threshold.

"It looks like we're approaching those numbers, but I don't want to give people false hope," Brown said. "This will be ongoing. We're getting phone calls of more slides every day."

The largest slide happened Sunday in the West End. It destroyed a house and covered a portion of a ramp on Route 51 near the West End Bridge. The ramp and South Main Street in the West End remain closed, cutting off access to Route 51 North, West Carson Street and the West End Bridge. Officials said the streets would likely remain closed until next week.

Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-765-2312, bbauder@tribweb.com or on Twitter @bobbauder.

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