Road crews work to clean up mud

Crews were working Saturday to clear a massive mudslide that shut down a mountain highway outside Cedar City.

The slide, which was triggered by an avalanche, brought down tons of debris onto U-14, closing the two-lane highway that eventually connects motorists with Duck Creek, Kane County; Panguitch and Kanab.

"When this came down it just brought the whole forest — millions of tons of mud and trees and rocks," Utah Highway Patrol Lt. David Excell said Saturday.

From a helicopter Excell said he could see an 8-foot snow fracture line where the avalanche started near the top of a mountain slope at about 10,000 feet in elevation. The avalanche ran for two miles down a ravine to the highway, piling debris 300 feet wide.

U-14 runs over a high plateau from Cedar City to snowbound Cedar Breaks National Monument and drops onto U.S.-89 about halfway between Panguitch and Kanab.

State transportation officials plan to assess the damage on Monday. Excell said the road may need millions of dollars of repairs, and it could be a week or more before the highway is re-opened.

The slide may have been aided by heavy rainfall on Friday, but Excell said the mountain slope seemed ready to release on its own and remains dangerously unstable.

Authorities were notified at the onset of the slide at about 10 a.m. Friday when it sent water from Coal Creek running over the road.