HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (KTHV)-- While Arkansas may be more well-known for its tornadoes, it also experiences a number of landslides.
In steeper topographies like the Ozarks and Hot Springs, landslides, debris movements, and rock falls can be a relatively usual occurrence
"It can be a dangerous area, but people don't think about that," said Leslie Smith, who works at a store that got demolished by a landslide in 1995. "Who says [a landslide] couldn't happen again?"
Central Avenue in Hot Springs has experienced four landslides since the 1960's, three of them occurring within a quarter mile of each other.
"The water acts as a lubricant and helps carry the materials," said Bill Prior, a geologist at the Arkansas Geological Survey.
Heavy rains saturate the soil until they loosen to the point of breaking away from rocks and other materials in the ground. That's what happened to the ground next to the Arlington Hotel in 1984, which caused a landslide that buried thirteen cars.
"I heard that it just crushed cars and trucks and they just left them [buried]," said Robert Ridley, who works across from the Arlington.
That isn't the only major landslide, however. In 1995, the landslide that destroyed Leslie's Smith's property, killed a woman after experts say more than 200 tons of rocks came crashing through the buildings only a few feet away from it.
"They had all the emergency people come so they could see how much damage had been done," said Davis Tillman. Tillman was working at his family's jewelry shop only a few storefronts away when the landslide happened.
"All the sudden smoke started passing the front window and we realized this was the dust and something had just happened," Tillman continued. "We went outside and saw that the buildings had just tons of soot and dust coming out the front of them."
The most recent landslide in Central Arkansas happened in North Little Rock in 2009 when a landslide caused three homes to become unsafe to live in.
Geologists say landslides are always possible, they depend on the right conditions.
