DENVER, July 30 (Reuters) - More than 100 motorists stranded in an overnight landslide in Colorado were brought to safety from a mountain canyon where heavy rains unleashed a torrent of mud and debris on the bare slopes. from a wildfire last year, authorities said on Friday.
No one was reportedly injured, but many travelers were trapped for hours after the cascading slide crossed Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon, a picturesque gorge carved out by the Colorado River, about 160 miles west of Denver.
In some places, mud, rocks and other debris piled up 12 feet deep, Mike Goolsby, regional director for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said at a news conference Friday.
"I'm knocking on wood in the sense that no one was hurt," Goolsby said.
A motorist caught in the slide described a harrowing scene to Denver television station KUSA.
"He was moving the car," motorist Mark Allen told the station. "I realized that the tires weren't touching the ground."
The Grizzly Creek wildfire, which burned nearly 33,000 acres within the canyon last year, stripped the mountainside of vegetation, leaving a burn scar unable to absorb large amounts of water when heavy rains hit.
The canyon was closed multiple times over the past month when landslides or flash flood warnings were forecast for the area.
About 75 people spent the night inside their vehicles at a rest area until crews could clear the road, authorities said.
About 20 people trapped inside a tunnel in the canyon were rescued early Friday morning by emergency crews who cleared a path through the debris field to reach them, the Garfield County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
In all, 108 people traveling in about 35 vehicles were trapped by debris, and the interstate through the canyon remained closed indefinitely, authorities said.
Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Steve Gorman and Leslie Adler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
