It was not an airplane crash...

Parent Cafe
21

<p>So sorry EK. </p>

<p>Doesn’t look like the weather will be cooperating the next few days. :frowning: </p>

22

<p>I’m very sorry, EK - that’s very hard. </p>

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<p>Don’t know if mudslides are as common today in the hills of the Puget Sound region as they were when I was a kid. Back then it seemed like a house slid down to the base of a hill or into a river about once a year or so.</p>

<p>One hopeful comment I heard broadcast last night is that some of the homes in the path of the debris had been unoccupied for months.</p>

24

<p>LW, you are correct, they still happen here, just not as huge. The last massive one happened just almost exactly a year ago. The difference is that the homes were not sitting on the edge of a cliff like in the last year’s slide: <a href=“http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1-home-destroyed-washington-state-landslide-0”>http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1-home-destroyed-washington-state-landslide-0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>It seems clear that there were ample warnings that the area was unstable, and development should have been curtailed. Given the number of reports, it is mind-boggling that the local officials say there was “no warning.” Yeah, right. Development greed, even on a small scale, trumps all, as usual.</p>

26

<p>Seattle Times has a link to a government map that had the area identified (among many others) as landslide prone. </p>

<p><a href=“http://seattletimes.com/ABPub/2014/03/25/2023224873.pdf”>http://seattletimes.com/ABPub/2014/03/25/2023224873.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The houses affected were on Steelhead Drive in Oso, WA (for those who care about looking at maps and photos). I think anyone who owns property below those areas on the published maps, within half a mile or so, probably just lost 50% plus of the value of their property.</p>

<p>The before photos make it look like there had been some movement in that soil over recent years. The after photo makes it clear that a lot more earth moved than just that in the sagging area. </p>

27

<p>As a long time Puget Sounder, and a frequent hiker in the Darrington area, I’ve been following this closely. I was just up there hiking along the Old Sauk River a few weeks ago.</p>

<p>This morning’s press conference explained that they did a lot of work after the 2006 slide to shore up the base and hold mudslides back from going into the river, and crossing it to the neighborhood. They were expecting slides and had experienced flooding when a slide went into the river, but nothing of this magnitude.</p>

<p>In terms of donating to the Red Cross, I volunteer with them and they are extremely careful with the donated funds. The problem with donations that earmark a specific event is that often a lot of that event’s needs covered in another way (corporate donations, volunteers, partnerships with other organizations and the government, etc) and that money would be better used to prepare for the next disaster – renting warehouse space, buying feeding vehicles, training volunteers, etc.</p>

28

<p>Effect- meet cause.
<a href=“http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023225363_mudslideloggingxml.html#.UzLoUAAbs_I.facebook”>http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023225363_mudslideloggingxml.html#.UzLoUAAbs_I.facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

29

<p>So horrible. Sorry to all immediately affected by this tragedy, and to all the extended families.</p>

30

<p>Sorry to hear about your friends, EK. Such a horrific situation.</p>

31

<p>I’m afraid that this whole thing makes me crazy worried about the Issaquah highlands. Undermined by a gravel pit there are steep unsupported hills with expensive houses and commercial development piling up above. I just cringe when I drive by. </p>

32

<p>I’d been working restoring the banks of the snohomish and skykomish rivers, before my knee replacement.
There has been much development even without clear cutting.
Our group worked by planting native fast growing trees & shrubs along the banks, the county usually built riprap reinforcements, but compared to the impact by increasing density & building close to the rivers, not to mention continued harvesting of softwoods, this shouldn’t have been a surprise.
With climate change and increased rain expected to the region, it is unlikely to be the last tragedy.</p>

<p>On the bright side, the Magnolia bluff area has been relatively stable this winter as has Queen Anne.</p>

33

<p>We live near an area of nearly 1,000 acres which has repeatedly been allowed to be logged. People who lived here before the logging are very clear that the amount of ground & surface water to be dealt with since the logging is incredible. Thousands of trees removed thousands of gallons of water from the land, aiding in saturation prevention. Too bad no one is in charge and can see this stuff from a big picture perspective. The land near us which was logged may be developed in 10-20-30 years, depending on the market and growth. there was no good reason to log it twice over the past 10-15 years.</p>

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<p>Especially when it is just another example of depleting our resources for export, without looking at long term ramifications.</p>

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<p>More places to help.
<a href=“http://mynorthwest.com/1012/2482334/Help-victims-of-the-Oso-mudslide”>http://mynorthwest.com/1012/2482334/Help-victims-of-the-Oso-mudslide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

36

<p>Thank you, EK!</p>

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<p>I’ll wait until we have more facts before assigning any blame but at minimum the possibility of this event should have been on the authorities’ radar because citizens of the Puget Region have endured mudslides for ages. As a young intern I worked on a dispute over clear-cutting as the alleged cause of a subsequent mudslide in the Cascade foothills nearly 30 years ago. The dramatic rise in the value of PNW real estate perhaps has allowed homes to be built where they should not be built.</p>

38

<p>Duplicate- why cant we delete posts anymore?
Some improvement.</p>

39

<p>I think they will find that its the logging, and rain increase, almost 300% x normal, that caused the slide.
<a href=“Geology in Motion: Major landslide in the state of Washington, USA: UPDATE(S)”>http://www.geologyinmotion.com/2014/03/major-landslide-in-state-of-washington.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Plus as Cliff points out, our region is designed for slides.

</p>

40

<p>I’ve been sick about this. Prayers, love and hope to all there and who have love ones there.</p>