3 Missing After Massive Mudslide in Mesa County, Western Colorado (Update: Search Called off for Clancy Nichols, Danny Nichols & Wes Hawkins)

Rescue teams in western Colorado are searching for three people missing after a four-mile long mudslide in Mesa County, about 11 miles from Collbran, Colorado. . The mudslide was estimated to be about 4 miles long, 2 miles wide and about 250 feet deep in some areas. The area is extremely remote and it is reported that there is no cell phone service. The individuals names have not been released.

Colorado authorities are searching for three people missing after a massive mudslide in Mesa County, the local sheriff’s office said late Sunday.

“This slide is unbelievably big,” said Lt. Phil Stratton with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office. It’s estimated to be about 4 miles long, 2 miles wide and about 250 feet deep.

The mudslide followed a day of rain and is located about 11 miles southeast of the town of Collbran, a community of about 700 people in western Colorado.

VIDEO – CNN

UPDATE I: Search halted for 3 missing after Colorado slide.

The search for three ranchers who disappeared after a huge mudslide in a remote part of western Colorado was called off Tuesday as authorities turned their attention toward monitoring for another potential slide.

Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey said the slide remained too unstable to continue looking for the men.

“We don’t want to create any more tragedy than we already have,” he said.

The three men were checking on problems with an irrigation ditch caused by an initial slide Sunday when a large chunk of a ridge broke off, sending soggy earth spilling like wet cement for 3 miles. The slide is about three-quarters of a mile across and several hundred feet deep at the center.

The men were Clancy Nichols, 51, who also worked as a county road and bridge employee; his son Danny Nichols, 24; and Wes Hawkins, 46, who worked for the local water district.