When Lorna McFadden and her husband Bill bought their house at 2535 Queets Ave. in Hoquiam four years ago, they were inheriting a family heirloom. They bought the house from the estate of Bill McFadden’s mother, intent on keeping the property in the family.
On the morning of Jan. 5, most of the McFaddens’ home was in the middle of Queets Avenue. The landslide that sent tons of soil sliding down Beacon Hill came through the house, taking the bottom floor into the street, and leaving the top in its place.
The McFaddens had been evacuated just hours before. After the hill appeared to be intact, their son, Jerry, came by to change clothes before heading to work. He watched the house slide into the street in his rearview mirror.
Before Bill and Lorna lived there, the house was home to their daughter, then their son. They expected generations of McFaddens to live in it for years to come.
“We had lots of future plans for the house,” Lorna McFadden said. “To demolish it, it’s going to take our retirement fund. We lost the home, we lost the value of the home, we lost the property inside, we lost the land and it’s worthless now.”
Like most homeowners, the McFaddens’ insurance didn’t cover landslides.
Mounting costs
The McFaddens’ situation is familiar to that of many families whose homes were condemned following the flood, especially around Hoquiam’s Beacon Hill, an area that now serves as the epicenter of the landslide’s damage. Lon Howell, Hoquiam’s building inspector, condemned seven houses in the area — three atop the hill and four along Queets Avenue at the bottom.
Now, those families are also contending with the mounting costs that come with condemnation, which can reach into the tens of thousands.
The slide has also cost the city an estimated $800,000 in damage to the road and sewer system, and left some families with limited access to their homes at the top of the hill until repairs were made to Beacon Hill Drive earlier this month. Officials expect federal dollars to fund most of those repairs.
For displaced homeowners, the costs come pouring in once a condemnation notice is filed. Depending on the circumstances, the homeowner is given an order to either repair or destroy the house, Howell said.
“The places on the hill are in a geologically hazardous area right now,” Howell said. “They cannot be repaired, in my opinion, so the order that they received says ‘demolish.’”
Anatomy of a condemnation
Following an order for demolition, homeowners are then required to have the house tested for asbestos. If the house tests positively, a permit application to remove the asbestos must be filed with the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, and then proof of a contractor’s removal of the asbestos must also be filed.
Once asbestos is cleared from a property, homeowners then apply for a demolition permit from the agency at a cost of $35, as well as one from the city. In Hoquiam, this permit costs $51.50. Utilities must also be terminated at the site before the demolition.
Homes that are abandoned are then left to the city to demolish, said Hoquiam City Attorney Steve Johnson. The city’s building code council grants a search warrant and a permit to demolish the house, and a lien is then filed against the property. In the case of the Beacon Hill properties, which now have little-to-no value, the city would lose any money spent demolishing the houses under these terms, Johnson added.
Costs continue to rise
The cost of demolition itself varies between contractors and the condition of the property, though McFadden said she’s likely to pay around $16,000.
For displaced homeowners, condemnation has meant dipping into accounts set aside for retirement to fund demolition costs. McFadden said that’s exactly what her and her husband are doing.
“Part of our retirement bought the house,” she said. “Now we’re going to use the rest to demolish it — it’s going to be in a landfill.”
Amy Chan and her husband David find themselves in a similar situation after their home at the top of the hill at 432 Beacon Hill Drive was left sitting right on the edge. Howell told them to evacuate immediately on the morning of Jan. 5.
Since then, Amy Chan said, they’ve been living with a friend and are preparing to move into an apartment, where monthly rent will take the place of a mortgage they had already paid off.
“We lost the whole house because it’s totaled — there’s no value in the house anymore, and the insurance doesn’t cover mudslides,” Chan said. “We lost one-third of our planning for retirement. We cannot retire now.”
Bouncing back
But following three weeks of shock, McFadden said she’s seen the best of the community, with an overwhelming amount of outreach from her and her husband’s employers.
She’s also aware of the silver lining she and her husband have — an extra home to move into — that some families are left without.
“We will be OK, we will survive; I feel we are the luckier ones,” McFadden said. “My heart breaks for everybody else because we have another home.”
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