A couple in Draper, Utah watched as their $900,000 "forever home" — along with a neighbor's house — broke apart and slid off a cliff into the valley below on Saturday (see video, posted below by AP). They — along with their neighbors, a family of seven — had evacuated their home back in October after noticing foundational cracks, and were renting elsewhere while waiting for repairs to be made. Obviously the repairs, if such a thing was even possible, didn't come soon enough.
From Insider:
Draper's Eric Kamradt and his wife saw their home and another uninhabited house slip into the canyon the structures once overlooked. According to KSTU, multiple residents in their neighborhood evacuated the surrounding homes at the urging of city officials.
Kamradt documented the destruction of the $900,000 home he'd purchased with his wife in November 2021 and shared the clip to LinkedIn.
Draper's government officials took to the city's Facebook account Saturday to issue a statement on the matter and close trails near the Hidden Canyon Estates subdivision where the homes were located. The town is situated about 19 miles outside of Salt Lake City.
"Draper City has been following up with the developer, Edge Homes for months on engineering studies Edge Homes has conducted regarding the stability of the surrounding area," the statement read. …
A spokesperson for the company told the station the shifts in the homes were due to "unique geographic features and the soils on which they were constructed."
And from USA Today:
Both houses collapsed due to sliding early Saturday morning, prompting engineers, building officials and public safety staff to head to the scene. On-site officials then decided that two more homes next to the condemned properties also needed to be evacuated, the city posted.
A 1.29-mile trail called Clark's Trail and a 5.4-mile trail called Ann's Trail are also closed while officials look into the stability of the newly-condemned homes, the city said.
"Everyone needs to avoid the area," officials warned. "Do not go to the neighborhood where the homes slid. Only residents allowed."
Front page thumbnail image: stockcreations / shutterstock.com
