I was looking at google earth the other night, and that area showed a small slide in the 90’s, and a moderate slide in 2004 (that blocked the river). Eerie to see the slides get bigger and the development gets larger too. I am sure that area was known by locals and experts to have the potential to be bad. Knowledge doesn’t do much good unless it gets down to the people making the decisions to build or buy a home in some areas. Although I believe this is probably one of the largest landslides to have ever occurred in Washington.
In hindsight it is like sitting yourself down in front of a loaded gun.
After the slide in 2006 extensive work was done to stabilize the slope. The engineers thought the problem was solved.
Not only did everyone think the problem was solved, no one could imagine a slide this big even if it were NOT solved.
Guess they were wrong. Big time.
The biggest catastrophe waiting to happen in Washington state is the residential development of all the valleys west of Mt. Rainier.
A major earthquake or eruption could instantly melt billions of tons of ice and snow and could potentially kill thousands of people.
I’ve read reports that claim the run off could reach all the way to Tacoma and Olympia.