Imagine buying your dream house and gradually losing it to a slow-moving landslide. For Jim and Charity Marlatt of Keene, NY, this is a living nightmare they face every day.
The ordeal began with a small crack in the dirt that gradually turned into an 82-acre landslide. As a result, their house is now literally sitting on a 20-foot ledge that is ready collapse. They have lost half the land under their house and much of their flowers to the slide. It’s torturous as the landslide moves only inches at a time. It could go on for three months or three years says local geologist Andrew Kozlowski.
The Marlatt’s cant stop the land from sliding, so they are doing the next best thing — paying a contractor $US150,000 to drag their house from the edge of destruction. Let’s hope things work out and they can save house before it slips from their hands. [NY Times; image from Lori Van Buren / Times Union]