Workers were forced to abandon efforts to stabilize a hillside in the northwest Wyoming resort town of Jackson when a sudden lurch in a creeping landslide caused a house to split in half, the Associated Press reported.
Breaking off a room or two and leaving a door swinging above the precipice, a huge crack in the ground, which had opened up under the house a few weeks ago, shifted several feet downhill in less than a day.
With the ground shifting at a rate of an inch a day, rocks and dirt tumbled down in an almost constant stream.
According to the AP, geologists have warned that much bigger chunks could be falling down as the day progresses.
"As it starts to get moving, it will start to get faster," George Machan, a landslide specialist consulting for the town, said at a town meeting Friday.
But unlike the March 22 landslide in Oso, Wash., that killed 39 people, the ground would not liquefy and collapse, Machan said.
"More likely, large blocks of earth would tumble down piece by piece, he said, perpetuating the drawn-out threat to four homes on the hill and to two apartment buildings and four businesses below," the AP reported.
When significant hill movement was noticed by town officials on April 4, 42 homes and apartment units were evacuated by April 9.
"Between Thursday night and Friday morning, the shifting earth had bulged a road and a parking lot at the foot of the hill by as much as 10 feet. The groundswell pushed a small town water pump building 15 feet toward West Broadway, the town's main drag," the AP reported.
To keep workers safe and out of the danger zone, efforts to slow the slide - such as pouring rock and dirt fill behind large, L-shaped concrete barriers arranged in a line at the base of the slide - were put on hold.
"It's really not safe to put people out there. You try to do what you can, but at some point you're really restricted from entering the area," Machan said.
