Hardin Co. road closes after landslide, road damage

HARDIN CO., Tenn. — A landslide over the weekend swept two Hardin County homes into the Tennessee River.

“We could hear it for a long time. Things just kept falling and they kept falling all day. You can see the things on the top that were their belongings and then they went in,” neighbor Carol Robinson said. “You can just hear it, you knew when it was going. It was just tumbling and you could just hear it.”

Robinson said the sound of her neighbor’s home falling off Glendale Road was a frightening one.

One of the homes was occupied, but the family evacuated safely.

The other home was vacant at the time of the landslide.

Robinson says she’s known the family for about 14 years.

“I am just brokenhearted. It is so tragic, but I am very thankful that everybody is alive. That’s the main thing, I know that a lot of precious things were lost, but they have their lives and that’s the most precious,” she said.

WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News reporter Stephanie Fernandez went back to Glendale Road on Monday, when county officials closed the road due to dangerous conditions. These photos show some of the damage.

“It’s fearful to walk down there really. Driveway was a driveway and now it’s a 20-foot drop off,” Robinson said.

Glendale Road has since started to crack, which causes a big concern for residents and county officials. Fire officials are warning drivers to stay off the road and take an alternate route. The landslide is continuing to grow and make the road more dangerous.

“The road is not safe to drive on and there is a crack in it and it is getting worse. So the road here on Glendale Road is going to be closed for an indefinite period of time,” Hardin County Fire Chief and Emergency Management Agency Director Melvin Martin said. “It is not safe to be traveling on this road.”

Robinson said she is thankful that everybody is okay.

Another local family has offered the homeowners a place to stay since the landslide, and items have been donated to the family.