Ground still shifting in Saskatoon neighbourhood

The movement of ground in a Saskatoon neighbourhood close to the river continues and itis affectingmore roads,officials said Friday.

The slump, described as a slope failure, has caused extensive damage in the Nutana neighbourhood, especially along 11th Street East andSaskatchewan Crescent.

On Friday morning officials said the ground moved another 30 centimetresovernight.

The ground hadmoved about 1.5 metres on Thursday.

Itcaused extensive damage to a backyard anda utility pole.

Residents are being told tostay out of back lanes and back yards in the affected area. Barricades have beenput in place to limit access.

The city also said Friday thatelectricity to the area was back on again. Itwas turnedoff because of the damage to theutility pole.

However, there are plans to turn off the power on Saturday so that some monitoring equipment can be installed. The city said the power would be out between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday and tentatively 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Sunday.The outage would affect all the homes that were without power in the 200 to 300 block of Saskatchewan Crescent, as well as the homes on the odd address side of 11th Street East.

Natural gas service, however, will remain shut off for many residents. About half of the affected customers, around 250 places,were set to have service restored.

Water has not been affected.

Mark Gimby has lived in his home in the area, which was built in 1920, formore than ten years.

He said Friday that he is leaving Saskatoon to spend the weekendat a cabin.

"Of course we're concerned," he said of the situation with the ground. "But not too much. We stayed in our house last night."

While city officials offered a place for people to stay on Thursday night, but no one took them up on that.

They are now advising residents to be cautious.

"It's not safe to go touring around the lane in the immediate affected area," Mike Gutek, from the city, said Friday. "We don't think it's wise to be uncareful in your backyard, particularly with things that can fall over."

One expertsays nature is likelythe driving force behindthe slumping of the riverbank.

TheCentre for Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan has been trackingthe potential impact of record-high water tables in the province. Scientists at the centre have noted there ismore water than ever moving through the ground and that could be a contributing factor to what is happening in Saskatoon.

"Riverbanks naturally fail for lots of reasons," Cherie Westbrook, a professor at the centre explained to CBC News Friday. "The streams cut into the stream bank and the soils destabilize and they slump and that happens naturally."

Westbrook also said that with more water around,soil gets soaked and loses some of its cohesive strength.

"The soils fail," she said. "They can't stick together very well."