We have experienced very heavy rain in the Banos area over the last week, and heavy rainfall always means landslides in this mountainous area. Normally these landslides happen in unpopulated areas, but on Aug 11 a large chunk of a steep mountain fell on the community of El Placer, the gateway community for our Cerro Candelaria and Naturetrek reserves and the home town of most of our Banos-area reserve guards. The mountain was very steep, and the material fell vertically nearly a quarter of a mile (500m), smashing into the town with enormous kinetic energy. A house in its path was destroyed, killing three people and leaving a young child alive but orphaned.
Several of our staff missed being killed by just one minute — they had been crossing the landslide zone just a minute before the landslide struck. They saw the wall of rocks and soil come crashing down on their friends and relatives, and later saw the bodies. Understandably they were deeply shaken and scared.
Will the mountain make another landslide? Is the town still in danger? The local government attempted to fly a drone to look more closely at the source of the landslide to answer that question, but for some reason it couldn’t go high enough to be useful. We have good drones (thank you Matt Scott and Steve Mandel) so I did an inspection. I post the results here so that authorities, safety specialists, and community members can see what the upper parts of the landslide look like. We have no special knowledge about this; we are providing this data to the local community without interpretation.
Lou Jost, Fundacion EcoMinga
Desastre en el pueblo de El Placer, la comunidad a la entrada de nuestras Reservas Cerro Candelaria y Naturetrek, y hogar de muchos de los guardias de nuestras reservas
Hemos experimentado lluvias muy fuertes en el área de Baños a lo largo de la última semana, y las fuertes lluvias siempre significan deslizamientos en esta área montañosa. Normalmente estos deslizamientos ocurren en áreas no pobladas, pero el 11 de Agosto, un gran pedazo de montaña cayó en la comunidad de El Placer, la comunidad a la entrada de nuestras reservas Cerro Candelaria y Natretrek y el pueblo hogarde la mayoría de nuestros guardias de las reservas del área de Baños. La montaña era muy empinada, y el material cayó verticalmente casi un cuarto de milla (500 m), chocando contra el pueblo con una enorme energía cinética. Una casa en su camino fue destruida, matando a tres personas y dejando a un niño pequeño con vida, pero huérfano.
Mucho de nuestro personal se salvó de morir por solo un minuto – ellos habían estado cruzando la zona de deslave solo un minuto antes de que ocurra el deslizamiento. Vieron la pared de rocas y suelo caer sobre sus amigos y familiares, y luego vieron los cuerpos. Es comprensible que estuvieran profundamente conmocionados y asustados.
¿Ocurrirá otro deslizamiento de tierra en la montaña? ¿Esta el pueblo todavía en peligro? El gobierno local intentó volar un dron para mirar más de cerca a la fuente de deslizamiento para responder a esa pregunta, pero por alguna razón no pudo ir lo suficientemente arriba para ser útil. Tenemos buenos drones (gracias Matt Scott y Steve Mandel) así que hicé una inspección. Publicaré los resultados aquí de modo que las autoridades, los especialistas en seguridad, y los miembros de la comunidad puedan ver como se ve la parte superior del deslizamiento. No tenemos un conocimiento especial sobre esto; estamos proveyendo esta información a la comunidad local sin una interpretación.
5 thoughts on “Disaster in the town of El Placer, the gateway community to our Cerro Candelaria and Naturetrek Reserves, and home of many of our reserve guards”
A terrible and frightening event. I am relieved that there were not more fatalities, but it’s awful that there were any. Thank you for sharing your drone footage. I hope someone is able to make use of it. I wish I knew what to say.
Lou, that is terrible news about El Placer. At about1:55 minutes in the drone video, it appears in the far left there is another unstable area near the top. That might be a good area to begin the investigation of the causation of the landslide. Some of the exposed ground appears to be a red lava rock formation. Was this an extinct volcano?
Thanks for your concerns Jack, Billy, and Sam,. We hope there are no more heavy rains this year. Billy, I am not sure of the origin of this rock. The next mountain to the east is not volcanic,
Maybe you’ll find this useful– beta.nsf.gov/news/new-model-developed-predict-landslides-along-wildfire …burn scars, quoting Daniel Horton at Northwestern U, and linking to nhess.copernicus.org/articles/22/2317/2022/ , Chuxuan Li, northwestern, et.al., “Augmentation of WRF-Hydro to simulate overland-flow-and streamline-generation debris flow susceptibility in burn scars,” July 27, 2022. James Greene
Fundacion EcoMinga 
A terrible and frightening event. I am relieved that there were not more fatalities, but it’s awful that there were any. Thank you for sharing your drone footage. I hope someone is able to make use of it. I wish I knew what to say.
Lou, that is terrible news about El Placer. At about1:55 minutes in the drone video, it appears in the far left there is another unstable area near the top. That might be a good area to begin the investigation of the causation of the landslide. Some of the exposed ground appears to be a red lava rock formation. Was this an extinct volcano?
That’s tragic. I know these people and will visit next time I’m in the area.
Thanks for your concerns Jack, Billy, and Sam,. We hope there are no more heavy rains this year. Billy, I am not sure of the origin of this rock. The next mountain to the east is not volcanic,
Maybe you’ll find this useful– beta.nsf.gov/news/new-model-developed-predict-landslides-along-wildfire …burn scars, quoting Daniel Horton at Northwestern U, and linking to nhess.copernicus.org/articles/22/2317/2022/ , Chuxuan Li, northwestern, et.al., “Augmentation of WRF-Hydro to simulate overland-flow-and streamline-generation debris flow susceptibility in burn scars,” July 27, 2022. James Greene