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14 dead; 176 reports of people missing in mile-wide mudslide

shrubnose said:
There is plenty of media coverage of this.

What I find mind-boggling is that anyone would live at the foot of an obviously dangerous slide area.

The local government has some responsibility for what happened, they shouldn't have let people build homes there.
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It wasnt obviously dangerous...people live on plenty of obviously stupid cliffs, and below them, here and elsewhere. CA comes to mind.

However some of the homes destroyed were across the road and across the river....far from the ridge.

It also took out cars driving by on the road.
 
shrubnose said:
Some places are obviously not good locations for a home.

For example: Homeowner who paid £150,000 for cliff top property loses garden in 5,000-tonne rock fall | Mail Online
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Millions of people live in flood zones and hurricane zones. And they are often the poorest.

Have you ever seen the number of trailer parks along rivers? Sad. People with few options, usually renting, and they lose everything every few yrs. (not always the same people over and over of course, but sometimes).
 
Lursa said:
Millions of people live in flood zones and hurricane zones. And they are often the poorest.

Have you ever seen the number of trailer parks along rivers? Sad. People with few options, usually renting, and they lose everything every few yrs. (not always the same people over and over of course, but sometimes
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Like the fat guy on Saturday Night Live who lived in a van down by the river, eh?

If you want a nice house on a hill with a car elevator you have to pay a little more.
 
CRUE CAB said:
Yea, right. Been here 45 years, don't plan on leaving.
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I hear you, anywhere that you live has some kind of hazard.

I moved from Louisiana to Oregon get away from the hurricanes, all that you have to worry about in Oregon is earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and landslides.
 
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Gipper said:
How do you die from this then? Does a mile-wide mudslide just sneak up on you? If I wasn't at my car, I'm close enough that I can get to it and drive off at 5x that speed before dying.
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I don't think they saw it coming. Cars on the road with people inside were buried alive under several feet of mud. They can't get help to them because the mud is like quick sand and would just swallow them up. It's a worst nightmare situation.

Here's a video of a guy driving in reverse to escape a mud slide.....

 
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Moot said:
I don't think they saw it coming. Cars on the road with people inside were buried alive under several feet of mud. They can't get help to them because the mud is like quick sand and would just swallow them up. It's a worst nightmare situation.
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They saw it like you see an arrow coming at you. Not much time for anything except realizing you are about to get stuck with an arrow.
 
sawyerloggingon said:
Screw those poor people huh.:roll:
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That's not what I say, but that's what the local government that let those people live in that dangerous location did.

None of those people had to die. They are dead because their local government didn't do it's job.
 
I'm not really into blaming the victims at this point. In fact, I think victim-bashing is pretty damned tacky right now.

There are almost 200 people unaccounted for, and likely dead. The mud is anywhere from 15 feet to 40 feet deep (depending on which news source you're listening to), it covers a solid square mile of area, hampering ingress for rescuers and egress for anyone still alive. It is a damned tragedy of catastrophic proportions for those involved, and until and unless solid evidence that the state government knew the area was a hazard zone for building and was knowingly negligent in issuing building permits, I'm not ready to blame anybody or anything beyond mother earth and mother nature.
 
shrubnose said:
That's not what I say, but that's what the local government that let those people live in that dangerous location did.

None of those people had to die. They are dead because their local government didn't do it's job.
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How is their local government going to stop a mudslide?
 
shrubnose said:
That's not what I say, but that's what the local government that let those people live in that dangerous location did.

None of those people had to die. They are dead because their local government didn't do it's job.
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What about Calif letting people live right on top of known fault lines or Nawlins that let people live below sea level or NY letting people live on sand bars in the ocean or Mississippi letting people live in flood zones or........... People want to live where they want to live and in reality gov can or should do very little if anything to stop them. I live way out in the woods with one way in one way out. In a big fire I would lose everything maybe even my life, oh well.
 
sawyerloggingon said:
What about Calif letting people live right on top of known fault lines or Nawlins that let people live below sea level or NY letting people live on sand bars in the ocean or Mississippi letting people live in flood zones or........... People want to live where they want to live and in reality gov can or should do very little if anything to stop them. I live way out in the woods with one way in one way out. In a big fire I would lose everything maybe even my life, oh well.
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No place is totally safe. You're no doubt a lot safer where you are than you would be in West LA, or in most parts of Oakland.

What people need to do is take responsibility for their choices. Here, the county, or maybe the state, has imposed a $150 a year fee for people living in the fire prone chaparral. The people with their fancy houses there had a fit, why should I pay extra to live here? The county (Forest Service) has the obligation to keep my home safe, I pay taxes too, whine, whine. Live in a risky place, pay for the risk.
 
Dittohead not! said:
No place is totally safe. You're no doubt a lot safer where you are than you would be in West LA, or in most parts of Oakland.

What people need to do is take responsibility for their choices. Here, the county, or maybe the state, has imposed a $150 a year fee for people living in the fire prone chaparral. The people with their fancy houses there had a fit, why should I pay extra to live here? The county (Forest Service) has the obligation to keep my home safe, I pay taxes too, whine, whine. Live in a risky place, pay for the risk.
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Generally speaking the most desirable places to live also have the highest risk from natural disasters except of course people that live in flat ugly tornado ally, they deserve to die really.:lol:
 
sawyerloggingon said:
What about Calif letting people live right on top of known fault lines or Nawlins that let people live below sea level or NY letting people live on sand bars in the ocean or Mississippi letting people live in flood zones or...........
People want to live where they want to live and in reality gov can or should do very little if anything to stop them.
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I live way out in the woods with one way in one way out. In a big fire I would lose everything maybe even my life, oh well.
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People all over the USA build homes where it's not safe, then when the inevitable happens they go crying to the government.

I vote that we tell them to scratch their ass.

Why should everyone else in the USA reward their bad judgement?
 
shrubnose said:
People all over the USA build homes where it's not safe, then when the inevitable happens they go crying to the government.

I vote that we tell them to scratch their ass.

Why should everyone else in the USA reward their bad judgement?
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Well, you can say that about pretty much any area in the US. Why build in Texas where wildfires will destroy homes and Perry goes crying to the Feds over aid? Why build within 20-50 miles of any major river, because they can flow over?
 
peteeu said:
well, you can say that about pretty much any area in the us. Why build in texas where wildfires will destroy homes and perry goes crying to the feds over aid? Why build within 20-50 miles of any major river, because they can flow over?
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I don't care where anyone builds their house, but if they build it next to a known landslide area they don't need to come to me looking for help when it gets smashed and buried.

Eventually everyone needs to stand up, take responsibility, and pay for their own bad decisions.

What's wrong with that idea?
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shrubnose said:
People all over the USA build homes where it's not safe, then when the inevitable happens they go crying to the government.

I vote that we tell them to scratch their ass.

Why should everyone else in the USA reward their bad judgement?
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I agree that people that build in unsafe areas should not run to the gov for help when a wave or flood washes away their home or in my case if everything I own burns up in a forest fire. I was against all the help we gave those people in NY that built on a freakin sand bar.
 
sawyerloggingon said:
I agree that people that build in unsafe areas should not run to the gov for help when a wave or flood washes away their home or in my case if everything I own burns up in a forest fire. I was against all the help we gave those people in NY that built on a freakin sand bar.
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Exactly. That's what home insurance is for. No place is totally safe.
 
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