Slope Failure

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Citation: FEMA-1646-DR-CA; Marin County; PW 828

Cross
Reference: Landslides, Pre-Disaster Condition

Summary: As a result of severe spring rainstorms, a slope failure occurred on an embankment in Marin County (Applicant). Storm water runoff resulted in a slope failure that damaged the road surfaces on Idlewood Road and Crown Road. FEMA prepared PW 828 for $417,707 to stabilize the slope and repair the damaged roads. Based on investigations by the Applicant’s geotechnical consultants, FEMA determined that Public Assistance funding was not eligible to stabilize the failed slope due to evidence of a pre-existing slip plane observed during the technical investigations and records of a landslide event that occurred at the site in 1982.

In its first appeal, the Applicant claimed that the slope had not failed during four previous disasters. Records of a landslide 24 years earlier did not prove that the site was unstable. The Deputy Regional Administrator denied the Applicant’s first appeal based on its determination that the geotechnical investigations demonstrated that the 2006 slope failure occurred on a pre-existing plane of weakness in the bedrock.

In its second appeal, the Applicant provided an email dated September 18, 2007, from its geotechnical consultant that stated that its borings and other site inspections were taken after the 2006 slide event had occurred and did not show evidence of active landslide topography. The Applicant reiterated its position that the reference to slide activity from 1982 demonstrated stability for two decades rather than instability at the site.

Issues: Was the slope failure a result of the disaster?

Findings: No.

Rationale: 44 CFR §206.223; FEMA Response and Recovery Directorate Policy 9524.2, Landslide Policy Relating to Public Facilities, dated November 17, 1999.

Second Appeal–Marin County, FEMA-1646-DR-CA