'It Started Out As A Crack': Landslide Threatens Future Of Ross Township Man's Home

ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- The torrential rains of the last week have left vulnerable hillsides sliding to where gravity will take them. Roads have been blocked, and property threatened.

With each raindrop, the quiet desperation of Jim Capes has grown as he worried about his home on Reis Run Road.

Looking at the parking area behind his home, Capes points to the ground. "It started out as a crack," he says. "And the last couple days of rain -- just real, real quick progress."

He called Ross Township yesterday to let them know the slide was forming and then watched as the stormed moved through.

"Every couple hours I'd look out, the crack was getting wider and it was sinking more," Capes says.

He came out before dawn this morning to find the sinkhole had become a full-blown slide -- encroaching within five feet of his home.

The slide caused an ancient oak tree to shift 40 feet down the hillside.

Capes worries about how much worse the slide will get when the tree is removed. "It's a mess now, but that could turn into a nightmare," he says.

A red line on the ground painted by Ross Township building inspectors is a marker for when Capes will have to evacuate and when his home might be condemned.

And he knows more rain is coming tomorrow.

"It's something I can't control and I really don't know what I'm going to do."

Crews expect to have Reis Run road clear and reopened to traffic by the first of next week.