Tuesday, March 25, 2014

That Saturday Morning


Where were you Saturday morning? What were you doing about 11:00? 

As you know, I was enjoying a stroll in a beautiful garden on a lovely spring morning. It wasn't until much later in the day that I began to realize the tragedy that was unfolding just about 75 mile north.

I spent a lot of time yesterday evening and this morning trying to find exactly where the slide occurred and just what the community looked like.  If you use Google Maps you can actually zoom in for close ups of the homes that were there just east of Oso, Washington. It looks like a beautiful place to live. 

I captured this view off of Google Maps showing the community before Saturday morning. The white area in the upper right quadrant is the scar from a previous slide.
This drawing was on the front page of the Seattle times this morning. The top of the new slide, as shown in the upper left here, is much higher. And in both photos you can see what is in the path of the mud slide. There were 59 vacant lots in the slide area, 49 more with some kind of structure, and 25 which were most likely occupied full time.  They are buried under up to 20 feet of mud.


Highway 530, the main access to this somewhat remote area, was also buried. 
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If you lived here and you were in your home or working in your yard, as many of us are on a Saturday morning, you are probably gone.  If you were kids watching TV with your dad, you are gone. If you are parents just returning from grocery shopping or heading out to your kid's sporting event, or going fishing on a sunny morning and you were on that section of highway, you are gone. If you were one of three workmen called out by a young woman, a nurse, who just bought her dream house that needed a plumber,  an electrician, and a technician from Dish Network, you are gone, along with her.

So far 7 people were rescued alive, 14 dead have been recovered, and up to 176 have been reported missing. The missing number will go down some as duplicate reports are discovered or people are located somewhere else, but with the mud now settling like concrete where it isn't still like quicksand, it will be a long time before recovery is complete.

The dammed up river caused flooding upstream, but is now releasing the pressure by cutting a new channel through the mud. The new channel is about where an old one was before a previous slide. 

Yes, there were warnings that another cataclysmic slide could occur here.  But we live in the here and now, and we trust our luck that it won't happen to us.

Sometimes it does.

16 comments:

  1. Oh my God, Linda, these stories are heartbreaking. I was on I-5 headed to Snohomish Saturday morning when we began to see emergency vehicle after emergency vehicle heading north of us, as we approached Highway 2. We thought it was a huge crash, but nobody, certainly not me, even considered something like this. Your paragraph relating these people who are gone just because they were in the path of this unbelievable mudslide just breaks my heart. So many people gone, in the blink of an eye. :-(

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  2. I had read that over a decade ago the Corps of Engineers completed a report that said it was dangerous and a major slide was possible at any time. I wonder if those people who lived there ignored that report or never even knew it existed.

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  3. This is so very sad. Reading your post, knowing how near you are, makes it even more real. I feel so sorry for all those people.

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  4. I was going to ask if there isn't some way to monitor these hillsides fro stability. It's a very shocking occurrence.

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  5. Like living in the Malibu hills where there is constant fire danger.

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  6. Devastating. Absolutely devastating. It is hard to even comprehend the details of this terrible tragedy. Avalanches are something we deal with in Colorado. There have been some that took out communities, but nothing like this. The snow does melt eventually, but the mud becoming hardened is another thing.

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  7. I have thought of you since I heard the story, but knew you didn't live there. OMG.... I didn't know there the river had been damned. Those poor people and their loved ones..

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  8. it is heartbreaking for those involved...with earthquakes, tornados, etc everyone is in some kind of danger...

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  9. Yes, heartbreaking. I never considered a mudslide could ever happen anywhere. Prayers for all concerned.

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  10. Not knowing where some of my Washington friends live, I was glad to see you and Djan post and know at least you were safe.
    You managed to put a very personal touch to the dreadful tragedy. The scope is hard to comprehend. My prayers are for those unaccounted for and for the families of those who were taken.

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  11. Good morning Linda - This was very well written and excellent photos. You gave a better report on this unfortunate mud slide than most newspapers. I am sure a lot of work went into this on your part - for something of this magnitude to happen so fast and in the blink of an eye, all gone. A dreadful tragedy, the loss not yet known, your personal view done very well and my prayers to the families. First time visitor to your Blog, I shall return.

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  12. I immediately checked a map in the hope that you were not in harm's way. This is such a sad and terrible tragedy--heartbreaking. Your words have really put a face on it--all the sadder.

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  13. I am just sick about this Linda. Glad you and my family members are not near here. I so wish they don't let anyone build there again. I used to work for a gas utility and there are so many areas in King and Snohomish counties that they wouldn't and couldn't put lines because of the unstable ground. Scary.

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  14. Like other bloggers have said when we got the news in Cuba my instinct was to pray that our blogging friends were safe but also felt sad for all who had just left our world so suddenly and tragically.

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