Remote Living > Housing

Seen the news, lately?

<< < (2/3) > >>

OperaHouse:
Rare, but it happens more than you think.  A couple bought 400 acres in thr NY Adirondacks and built a home to retire in.  Two
years ago they had a landslide due to high rains. A geologist said it waqs the largest one in the Adirondacks for a thousand years.
I was due to a layer of large gravel deposited by the glaciers that acted like ball bearings when it became saturated with water.
The house was near the edge of it.  House was fairly intact but had moved 20 feet and was now near a cliff.  They wanted to move
the house about 1000 feet to stable ground.  The insurance company wouldn't pay the $75,000 to do it.  Remembered this because I
was insured by the same company.  Isn't that the reason we get insurance, for the unexpected.  My house is 20 feet from the edge of
a cliff, then it is 40 feet doen to the river.  Looks solid enough, but then they thought that too.

Out There:
What the politicians and the media will not, under any circumstances, mention is this: Yes, this is the Pacific Northwest and YES, we gat a lot of rain here. BUT…. that area is a) near a river, so runoff actually has a place to go and b) like MANY areas in this region, it is a logging community. Clear-cuts are the norm, not the exception, around here. Some "forestry" company comes in and buys up a whole section at a time, divides it up into blocks and clear-cuts a block at a time. The rubble had some trees in it, but they were probably downhill from where the slide originated. So, like electrondady1 said…. the "disaster" is likely man-made. The industry is so entrenched that people honestly and fervently believe they could not live without their income from "forestry". You will not change their minds. Yet, if someone had pockets deep enough  or the cajones to legally stand toe-to-toe with the forestry industry and sue them for negligence and/or wrongful death, I think they would have a case. But that won't happen. Not here. Not now.
-Brian

12AX7:
There are a few news reports today that said that there was a mild earthquake in the area of the  mud slide just a few days before the slide.

joestue:
hmm.. was it clear cut within the last 30 years?

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/25/article-2587893-1C8B51FC00000578-128_964x637.jpg
those trees you see once covered that entire hillside, as shown here
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/25/article-2588991-1C8E309400000578-12_470x423.jpg

but there's that ridge showing exposed earth.. looking at the geometry it appears its been slipping for years.

Out There:
I think I would have felt or heard about an earthquake up here. I haven't heard that, yet. Also, I don'tt know when the last clear-cut was.  The spin is already coming, though. The forestry folk are going to do everything in their power to ensure that this is blamed solely on Mother Nature. Personally, I don't buy it. I drive down a road, each morning, where small slides are evident. We're downhill (almost on the river) from many clear-cuts. Even in my own yard, I see the effects. In those photos you see a lot of light-colored deciduous trees. Those are alders and they grow fiercely in wet areas…. like weeds…. but their seeds lie dormant for years when there's a canopy from the conifers. The alders are extremely shallow rooting trees. A small amount of run-off can dislodge them. So you get the domino effect and you end up with a mess!
-Brian

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page