Trains halted.

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Mudslides Halt Train Service North of Seattle
Sunday’s rainfall breaks records for precipitation in western Washington
By
Zusha Elinson
March 16, 2015 3:02 p.m. ET
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Passenger trains were being kept off the tracks north of Seattle on Monday because of mudslides from heavy rainfall.

BNSF Railway Co. suspended passenger service in the corridor for 48 hours as a precaution after a 20-foot-long, 10-foot-deep slide temporarily blocked the tracks between Seattle and Everett, Wash., on Sunday, said Gus Melonas, a spokesman for the company. Freight traffic was halted overnight, but was up and running Monday morning. There were four other minor slides in the area, Mr. Melonas said. All were cleared Sunday night.

The slides come a week before the one-year anniversary of the massive landslide in nearby Oso, Wash., that destroyed a rural enclave and killed 43 people. An unusually wet March contributed to that landslide.

Mudslides along this rail corridor in the rainy and hilly northwest aren’t uncommon, said Mr. Melonas, adding that the company keeps equipment and crews nearby to clear slides.

“Yesterday we had 12 straight hours of downpour,” he said. “We knew it was just a matter of time.”

Sunday’s rainfall broke records for precipitation in western Washington, according to the National Weather Service. The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport saw 2.2 inches of rain, an inch more than the previous high for that day in 1974.

Overall, however, the state isn’t on track for record rainfall this March, said Jay Albrecht, a meteorologist at the weather service. “It’s actually been pretty dry—we just got all our rain in one day and that’s contributing to landslide problem,” he said.

Write to Zusha Elinson at zusha.elinson@wsj.com
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