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More Mount Shasta Mudslides Possible As Rain, Drought Compound Risks

MOUNT SHASTA (CBS13) — The southeast side of Mount Shasta is a mess on Monday after a weekend mudslide, and the situation could worsen in coming days.

While two roads were washed over, no one's been hurt.

Michelle Mead with the National Weather Service says the massive ice chunks that hold pockets of water were weakened by higher than normal temperatures, combined with this year's drought.

"Typically there is a layer of snow that kind of protects those glaciers," she said. Because of the drought scenario that we're in, that snowpack that's usually there to protect the glaciers melted off or didn't even exist."

But the situation could get worse with a wet storm system expected to hit Tuesday or Wednesday.

"If there was more cracks or fissures in the glacier, and water gets in there, we could get another release," she said.

Leaders from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest say they don't think any homes or buildings are in immediate danger, but they're watching the area closely.

But is there any chance of gaining back the glacier?

"Glaciers are hundreds and thousands of years of snow, water and ice," Mead said. "Yes it's possible. It won't be any time soon, let's just put it that way."

And CBS13's own Laura Skirde says the forecast isn't really glacier-making weather.

"The latest outlook for the climate prediction center is calling for a drier than normal October, November, December," she said. "These are typically the months where we'd at least start getting the cold rain if not the snowfall.

Forest officials say the glacier melt mudslides are typical during drought years, but nothing on this scale has happened in 20 years.

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