YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK -- Yosemite National Park rangers awaited word Thursday from a geologist’s helicopter flyover on the safety of hundreds of campsites and cabins a day after rockslide, fueled by the equivalent of 180 dump trucks full of massive boulders, roared down a cliff face.

Ranger Vickie Mates said the geologist would assess the stresses in the area and determine if there was the threat of another slide. Even before the flyover, a third of the evacuated cabins in the popular Curry Village area had been re-opened.

“Our first priority was getting the people out of harm’s way,” she said. “At mid-afternoon yesterday the Park Service made the decision that there were series of cabins far enough away from the event site that we could allow people safely to re-entry that area. A third of the cabins were re-opened and people were allowed to return to their accommodation.”

Wednesday’s slide damaged at least seven cabins, slightly injured three people and forced the evacuation of other cabins and campsites.

Park Ranger Roger Conn said the slide took place shortly after 7 a.m. in an area at the base of a 3,200-foot cliff face that is prone to rock falls.

The injuries were minor, he said, involving lacerations and an asthma attack.

Conn called the slide “significant” and said the extent of damage was being assessed. He said at least seven cabins appeared to have been damaged.

Witnesses told The Associated Press the slide toppled trees and hit some tents and wooden cabins near Curry Village amphitheater. The witnesses also said some people appeared to be injured.

There was another, smaller rock slide in the same area Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured. Curry Village includes visitor lodging, stores and restaurants with the dramatic, sheer face of a granite cliff as a backdrop.

In 1996, a rock slide in the same area sent as much as 162,000 tons of rock plummeting more than 2,000 feet, killing one visitor and felling 500 trees.

Tom Trujillo, of New Milford, Conn., who was with a group of amateur photographers, saw Wednesday's rock slide and ran toward it.

"Trees were crushed all over the place," Trujillo said over the sound of a hovering helicopter. "A couple of kids, fifth or sixth-graders, were stumbling out of the area. I tried to pick them up, tried to get them out as fast as I could."

Trujillo said he helped one boy, with blood on his forehead and down his back, get out and find his mother.

"It was a really big mess," Trujillo said. "Tents were crushed, trees were knocked down, hard cabins were moved out of their positions, with boulders blocking their doorway."

Another photographer, Rena McClain, a nurse from Dover, Del., told the AP she had her back to the granite face when she heard what sounded like a thunderclap. She whipped around and saw a giant cloud of rock and dust coming down.

"People were starting to yell 'Run, Run!' and kids started to scream," said McClain.

As the dust settled, shaken teachers and chaperones gathered groups of high school students and tried to get head counts.

"The kids were crying," said McClain. "I tried to comfort them. I'm a nurse; my immediate response was 'What can I try to do to help."'

Curry Village, founded in 1899 in south central Yosemite, has 610 canvas and wood cabins in rows among huge boulders, which geologists say are there because of prehistoric rock falls.

The beauty of the sheer granite face towering above the camp helps make Curry Village one of park's most popular lodging options.