The "Oso" slide. Some before and after stuff.

[northmanlogging]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-26/washington-mudslide/5346460

Follow the link and mouse over the pictures for what it used to look like and more or less what it is now.

Parked it here as the loggers and foresters wouldn't get too confused as to what really happend. In the third? moving pick you can see the rather small triangle unit that all the ******** are using to blame the slide on... The appearance of the face of the the slide area is from the alder and cotton wood that have been growing there since nothing else could stand up...

Anyway, now there are new rules for logging on steep "unstable" ground because of this mess...

As of today most of the standing water has receded, but the meat of the slide area is more like the face of the moon, nearly every house in those pics has been demolished or will be soon. The little bridge you can see crossing the river (C-post road) I believe is now closed permanently... at least for the time being, the main highway has been raised something like 15' and of course straightened...

Anyway don't to turn this into anything political, just wanted to show ya all whats going on round here's

 

[2dogs]

I saw these a few weeks ago on the anniversary. Very sad.

 

[slowp]

How many lawsuits so far? I heard the DNR and the last people to log that area were getting it. I imagine the hope is for an out of court settlement?

I have heard no geologist say it was logging caused. Only non-geologists.

I felt sick and didn't want to watch any of it on the news.

 

[northmanlogging]

I've lost count, 5-6 just over the logging maybe more. Sno, county has a bunch of bunny huggers on the council and they all called for a bunch of moratoriums... (aka shot themselves in the foot... we have two things that make this county go round Boeing and Timber)

Bunch of folks down river that where completely unaffected by the slide are suing the county... Was friends with a few of them... was... Some BS about the value of their property blah blah, and we where in eminent danger blech...

Then some of the families are suing though most of them are all in one big suit... two are suing over the bypass road, they want big money for a ****ing swamp...

The funny thing is that Seattle City Light hasn't said a peep about the full on trespassing and total rework of their access road, yet two dicks that had a little corner of their useless piece of swamp want huge money, and threatened to block the road unless they got it... (Some FS roads where uh... modified as well...)

By the way them Darrington boys know how to build road in a hurry...

By and large though most people up there understand **** happens, county couldn't have done anything about this if they could, DNR did everything by the book, and the loggers where nearly 1/2 a mile from the river... well beyond the 300' or whatever it is now.

There is some more frankly weird stuff that went on that hopefully will never see the light of day, FEMA came in and threw a metric **** ton of money around... leads for some funny behavior...

 

[northmanlogging]

There may be a gate... that may or may not resemble a mushed yellow pop can... near a FS road...

 

[slowp]

Folks were threatening to sue over the slides that happened here a few years ago. Port Blakely, the timber co. that owned the land where some of the slides originated brought in employees and equipment to get things cleaned up on the places that were messed up. I think they even purchased the Roadside Tavern which was torn down.
No lives were lost in our slides and they were quite small in comparison with the Oso slide.

 

[BeatCJ]

Hard to read this quote "Daniel Miller, a geologist and author of a 1999 study for the US Army Corps of Engineers that warned of the potential for a "large catastrophic failure" in the vicinity of the collapsed hillside, said additional slides in the area were likely." and blame anything on the unit at the top of the hill. The trees that were logged were planted (or seeded naturally) after the last time that area was logged. I look at the river, see the shape of the rocks and know it's slide prone material.

 

[madhatte]

One of the many very good uses for GIS technology is to find and predict landslide areas from the slope morphology. Anyplace with past landslide activity is a place where future landslide activity is likely, so one only need look for the characteristic headscarp/graben/toe feature of past slides to guess at the location of future ones. The LiDAR-based hillshade models of the affected area were clear: there had been landslides there in the past. I'm frankly offended that the construction of a housing development was permitted in that location, given the knowledge of the unstable slope adjacent. I am inclined to blame the county for choosing the tax dollars over public safety, and to say that they should have forbidden construction based on that knowledge.

 

[northmanlogging]

Most of those houses where built in the 60's-70's, however most of the people that lived there moved out after the 06? slide that blocked the river... causing the entire neighborhood to flood.

 

[madhatte]

Even in the 60's the cut edge of that hill should have been a red flag for construction below it.

 

[northmanlogging]

True... Wasn't around then, not even a twinkle in my pappy's eye...

 

[Joe46]

Well without trying to be political or point fingers I believe tax dollars have always had some bearing on decisions.

 

[Whitespider]

I felt sick and didn't want to watch any of it on the news.

I thought you said we should learn to embrace mother nature and her weather??

I'VE MOVED HERE

 

[OlympicYJ]

Miss P, I just finished Master Logger Training and sat by a gentleman whose son helped with the clean up while he was in Hawii. Same guy who found the set of drums the kids restored that you showed pictures of. Was pretty neat!

As far as the slide. Stupid is as stupid does. Personally I think the govt did what they should do (especially more often in this day and age) and let people do what they wan't with their private property. And if that means a person wants to be a donkey's posterior and put themselves and their family's lives in danger so be it. The herd will naturally cull itself if people let it. We need less stupid in this world.

 

[slowp]

Miss P, I just finished Master Logger Training and sat by a gentleman whose son helped with the clean up while he was in Hawii. Same guy who found the set of drums the kids restored that you showed pictures of. Was pretty neat!

As far as the slide. Stupid is as stupid does. Personally I think the govt did what they should do (especially more often in this day and age) and let people do what they wan't with their private property. And if that means a person wants to be a donkey's posterior and put themselves and their family's lives in danger so be it. The herd will naturally cull itself if people let it. We need less stupid in this world.

Small world. They are getting back into the logging business just a little bit--again. I worked with his wife at the FS.

The trouble with letting folks do as they want is the aftermath of lawsuits. Then we taxpayers have to fund the stupidity.

 

[OlympicYJ]

It is a small world. He said they do alot of small patches and heavy on the road const./dirtwork. I didn't quite catch his first name. Got the last though.

 

[slowp]

If it was the dad, it was Jim. He's a really good guy.

 

[OlympicYJ]

Yupp thats him. I knew it started wuth a J.

 

[SliverPicker]

What did the death toll end up being for that slide?

 

[northmanlogging]

43

All bodies and missing accounted for, took like 3 months but they found them all.