Very interesting link. Thanks for posting.
The article makes the point that engineers SHOULD have known this was a dangerous area, at least according to some experts. Obviously the experts who warned of the danger were ignored. The people who lived there thought it was safe, as did (apparently) all of the people who have been giving news conferences the last few days.
Interestingly, the escarpment on the slide this week was 600 feet high (!), four times higher than the previous high for this spot. I have to wonder if the efforts to shore up the slope kept it from having a series of smaller slides that would have periodically relieved the stress, with a single, much bigger slide as the end result.
I’m not surprised people wanted to build there. It is an amazingly beautiful area. Plus you can fish from your backyard. Salmon and steelhead. What’s not to like?
We live in a similar place, including fishing from our backyard. We love our location although it is not quite as scenic. Our house is way above the flood plain, and it would take a slide similar to the one at Oso to reach us.
Update on the death toll: They have now found 14 bodies, and the missing person list is up to 176. Hopefully some of the missing people will turn up, but it’s clear a whole lot of people died.
“I have to wonder if the efforts to shore up the slope kept it from having a series of smaller slides that would have periodically relieved the stress, with a single, much bigger slide as the end result.”
Good point - perhaps. Although I think the slide in 2006(?) released a lot of material that had been helping to hold up the recent slide zone. More than what a “little” wall could make up for. The new wall sounds like it was designed to keep soil material from getting into the river and messing up the fish habitat, rather than trying to contain the major slide.