Contra Costa County declares emergency in Morgan Territory after mudslide

MT. DIABLO, Calif. (KGO) -- Officials in Contra Costa County have declared an emergency in the Morgan Territory area to help them better deal with a mud slide that has crippled that area.

The slide east of Mt. Diablo - happened last month.

Officials in Contra Costa County have declared an emergency in the Morgan Territory to help them better deal with a mud slide that has crippled one community east of Mt. Diablo. The slide happened late last month

Elaine Friedman runs a bird sanctuary on Morgan Territory Road, a remote area in east Contra Costa County still nearly cut off by a 300-foot mudslide.

"Our lives have been totally turned upside down," Friedman said.

Now, Friedman and her neighbors are wondering when Contra Costa County officials will come to their aid.

As it is now, they can only walk over the slide toward Clayton, and the only way out by car involves driving a treacherous one-lane road for 45 minutes to Livermore.

"We don't have garbage pickup. We actually have to ferry our garbage through the closure. No mail delivery. The fire and emergency services, there is a truck down at the closure, but it's not manned," resident Elaine Friedman told ABC.

This morning Contra Costa supervisors did act, passing a resolution to expedite the repair of the roadway wiped out by the slide.

"We're working very hard, there's a lot of pieces. We're making sure it's safe, we're trying to make sure its stable," Diane Burgis said.

The county's public works director told us it could take four weeks to finalize a plan for a retaining wall at the slide site.

The more immediate goal is to find residents another safer way out.

"We are looking at some alternative access routes through the community either down to another section of Morgan Territory Road down to the slide, or onto Marsh Creek Road itself," Contra Costa County Public Works Director Julia Bueren said.

In the meantime, residents here will have to continue to make do, hauling themselves and their supplies around the slide.