Family Mourned; More Mudslides Feared

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Kitsap County - In a patch of grass on Winslow Way, friends, high-school students and strangers stood in a circle yesterday and sang "Amazing Grace" to mourn the deaths of the Herren family.

They held hands and wept in the pouring rain, trying hard to comfort one another. But it wasn't easy. Dwight and Jennifer Herren and their two sons, 2-year-old Skyler and 3-month-old Cooper, were killed Sunday morning in an avalanche of mud as they slept in their waterfront home on Rolling Bay Walk.

The crushing slide knocked the third floor off, sending it crashing into Puget Sound, and buried the rest of the house under tons of mud.

Many of those in the circle yesterday were students at Bainbridge High School, where Dwight Herren, 43, taught biology and physical science and was considered an innovative and inspiring teacher.

"This still seems surreal to me," said high-school senior Samantha Grant, 17. "It hasn't sunk in. None of it has, really. I can't believe we will never see him again."

While residents tried to come to terms with the tragedy, city officials and engineers combed the muddy slope yesterday for answers on how to prevent further slides and deaths. By evening, five neighboring houses were declared unsafe.

City Engineer Jeff Jensen said he was not sure whether the residents would be allowed back in their homes until the rainy season ends.

"I would not be comfortable living here at all," Jensen said.

Sunday morning's slide apparently was caused by rainfall and the melted snow from last month's storm, both of which saturated the slope, Jensen said.

"One of our biggest concerns is that it's only the middle of January," Jensen said. "The hillside is very saturated already, and there's the potential for heavier rainfalls."

The neighborhood historically has been a slide area, where winter months routinely send mud pouring onto the beaches, said city building official Larry Skinner.

"It's not a matter of if it slides, it's a matter of when," Skinner said.

In the early part of the century, families built summer and weekend cabins on the island's east side. Over the years, larger homes were built so families could live there year round.

"In retrospect, folks who first owned cabins here had the right idea and the proper use of the area," Jensen said.

City could ban winter occupation

Jensen said he plans several recommendations to city Administrator Lynn Nordby and the city attorney by the end of the week.

In the most drastic recommendation, the most fragile part of Rolling Bay Walk would be closed off during the winter. Residents would be allowed to live in those houses for only three seasons, Jensen said.

Jensen said he is not sure whether the city would be able to restrict occupancy in the exclusive neighborhood, where some of the houses sell for as much as $500,000.

"This is a tough discussion that's going to raise a lot of ire," Jensen said.

In a less dramatic measure, the city would drape the slope, which is privately owned land, with clear plastic to prevent rain from saturating the soil, Jensen said.

Last spring, another mudslide rocked a house - two doors away from the Herren home - off its foundation and forced many along the shore to leave their houses temporarily. The Herrens were among the families evacuated.

After that slide, homeowners on Northeast Mountain View Road, the street on the bluff above Rolling Bay Walk, were asked to reroute their drainage pipes directly to a ditch line or the beach, to lessen runoffs.

Some of the homeowners said they don't think runoff from their property contributes to the slides that have plagued the slope.

"We're not the problem," said one woman, who lives directly above the Herrens' washed-away home. "The slope is the problem."

The woman said rain that falls on her property has been diverted inland, away from the bluff, since before she moved in 11 years ago. She said she has lost none of her yard to erosion, and her property doesn't extend down the slope.

Another resident, Dawn Ziegelmayer, who has lived on Mountain View Road 31 years, said old-timers told her of slides 40 or 50 years ago that damaged houses on the beach below. She said that while she has lost no property to erosion, it's a constant concern.

"I have always just lived in fear of ending up in the water, but so far, so good," said Ziegelmayer, whose property drains inland, away from the slope.

After last spring's slide, city officials "really crawled all over the place," Ziegelmayer said, checking the drainage systems of homes on Mountain View. They even wanted to make certain she didn't drain her hot tub over the bluff, she said.

Sheila Leewens said the city ordered her last spring to divert runoff from her property away from the bluff. It wasn't a big job, she said: "We just dug a ditch and ran it the other way."

Leewens said her property extends just 10 or 15 feet down the bluff. She's lived on Mountain View Road 10 years, she said, and hasn't lost any land to erosion.

Community hit hard

The Rev. Joseph Tiernan of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church said the deaths of the Herrens have hit the community of 18,500 particularly hard. Dwight Herren's parents, Vern and Janet Herren, own the drugstore on Winslow Way and the family has strong ties to the community.

Dwight Herren, who graduated from Bainbridge High School, had taught there for 3 1/2 years. Jennifer Herren, 36, was a senior planner for the city of Bellevue.

"Whenever something tragic happens like this, people are afraid," Tiernan said. "The children don't understand this any more than we do. We need to help each other heal."

Woodway bluff ruled stable

Meanwhile, in Woodway, Snohomish County, the bluff that sent tons of dirt and five railroad cars into Puget Sound Wednesday appears to be stable, according to city officials.

"Everything seems to have settled down," said Woodway Mayor Ross Wood.

Nine Dominican nuns, evacuated from the Rosary Heights Convent last week, are back home, Wood said, and geologists and engineers are keeping an eye on the bluff.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad cleared the track Saturday and began running freight trains Sunday night. Amtrak, however, will not run passenger trains along the route for at least another week.

------------------------------------------------.

Memorial service

A service will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Bainbridge High School gymnasium. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to a scholarship in memory of the Herren family.