MALHEUR COUNTY, Oregon — The Oregon Department of Transportation reports that the US-20 will be closed for several days and most likely weeks after a recent mudslide.
Every time ground crews make progress digging the road out, more debris, mud, and water covers the area, says the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Idaho News 6 gets exclusive ODOT escort through mudslide area on US-20 in Oregon
Austin Schneider, a Boise resident, was on his way home from Bend, Oregon Sunday evening when he and his family got stuck behind the mudslide. He shared his experience with our team on how he waited hours east of Juntura before booking a room in Burns to spend the night.
We waited it out until midnight, before giving up and getting a single-bed room back in Burns lol… long night. Especially for the people who made it over the first slide just got stuck behind the next slide.. pic.twitter.com/YfCVJjz6vY
— Himothée Chalamet (@alphabjr) June 12, 2023
"We've taken that road probably a hundred times. We've seen snow, and we had whiteouts, but I've never seen a thunderstorm and a downpour affect that stretch of highway or any stretch of highway, like that ever. A couple of people in the video you can see tried to clear some of the rocks, but once they did that, they learned the hard way that there were more mudslides,” says Schneider.
After seeing the amount of damage on the road, Schneider says his family is lucky they took a break before driving home, otherwise, they may have been swept up in the mudslide.
Chief meteorologist Scott Dorval says recent storms in the area won't help with the clean-up efforts.
Dry weather is on the horizon for eastern Oregon and the Treasure Valley.
