Massive Landslide Threatens Homes

Here is the link:
www.cnn.com...

Whidbey Island in Washington State.

I have gone over my bandwidth usage so my PC is really slow today. All I can do here is paste the link.

If you are in this area - Please stay SAFE!

"There are still homes up on Fircrest Avenue that are threatened," Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue Fire Chief Ed Hartin told CNN affiliate KOMO-TV. Live video showed small sections of the cliff continuing to fall at 10:45 a.m. local time. Tons of earth had fallen into Puget Sound.

There ya go.

(Hey Westcoast, if you peek in, aren't you on the Puget Sound?)

reply to post by berkeleygal


Just saw this on Cnn. I have to look on the map and see where this is.

I keep thinking of those quakes offshore.

Good catch berkeleygal. Check back later after I have done my homework.

Originally posted by Doodle19815
(Hey Westcoast, if you peek in, aren't you on the Puget Sound?)

Yeah, Whidbey Island is on the Puget Sound. The Pacific Northwest has long had issues with what is called "mass wasting" aka epic landslides, primarily due to a mixture of heavy rainfall, an impermeable deposit underlying a permeable layer that causes the water to sit between the two layers, and gravity. A good way to kind of imagine this is if you take a sponge on an angled dish and make it soggy, the sponge is going to slide right on off the dish. Seattle has a few different types of impermeable glacial deposits and these deposits cover a pretty wide swath of the area. You'll also find the same issues in Oregon but the underlying factor is either glacial deposits or Columbia River Basalt.

I did some digging around for seismometers in the area, because I wanted to see what that looked like on a spectrograph. Unfortunately I could not find the signature, so it really wasn't all that large, as landslides go. And yeah, I see the pics. Still horrible though for those residents.

I found this video interesting. Huffington Post

Looked on USGS and this was the only quake I could find near that area.USGS

Wow, How scary. One minute your thinking you gotta get up to get ready for work and the next thing you know, your backyard completely dissappears. What a nightmare.

Here are a few more pics:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/bx515351e7.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ta51535308.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/lt515351c0.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/bx5153546b.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ac51535214.jpg[/atsimg]

[color=E3FFFE]Resident Bret Holmes told the News Times that he has been losing ground at his property all morning; there was previously more than 30 feet of land to the bluff's edge but now there is just 15.

He said the land started to give way after he heard what he described as 'a sonic boom'.

'I heard something loud, looked out my window and noticed I didn't have any trees in the front yard anymore,' he said.

A geotechnical engineer will arrive at the site this afternoon, which will give residents more of an idea of when they can return to their homes, officials said.

www.dailymail.co.uk... on-island.html

That would've been one hell of a ride, to be in that house.
I really can't even imagine how scary it would actually be.

Give the ground energy and it can have a landslide. Salt usually adds a lot to this, electrolytes in the soil can speed energy transmission. Calcium stabilizes the ground. I expect more of this in the future.

Originally posted by crappiekat
I found this video interesting. Huffington Post

Looked on USGS and this was the only quake I could find near that area.USGS

Wow, How scary. One minute your thinking you gotta get up to get ready for work and the next thing you know, your backyard completely dissappears. What a nightmare.

Huffpo is interesting because of their remark about the lack of significant rainfall quote by the fire chief but he's also not a geologist and I'm not sure what this is then: www.king5.com...

And the rainfall has been slightly higher than average in the Seattle area so probably some soggy soil: www.weather.com...

reply to post by crappiekat

Originally posted by crappiekat

Wow, How scary. One minute your thinking you gotta get up to get ready for work and the next thing you know, your backyard completely dissappears. What a nightmare.

I know they are not the only ones, but this↓particular house sets my train of thought into 1 specific direction. They've gotta move. They have no choice. They were most likely quite happy about living there. They liked their house. They probably loved the location. They were probably planning on living there for a very long time. Now they have to move asap.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/dp51535320.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by WhiteAlice



I was just on the weather channel going to post the same thing. I'm very slow at encryping these addresses.

It will be interesting to see what the geologists say in a couple days, regarding how much more land they could lose.

reply to post by BrokenCircles


I must say those people in that picture are either alot braver or dumber than me. I wouldn't be near that edge.

Originally posted by BrokenCircles
Wow, How scary. One minute your thinking you gotta get up to get ready for work and the next thing you know, your backyard completely dissappears. What a nightmare.

I know they are not the only ones, but this↓particular house sets my train of thought into 1 specific direction. They've gotta move. They have no choice. They were most likely quite happy about living there. They liked their house. They probably loved the location. They were probably planning on living there for a very long time. Now they have to move asap.


Yeah, it is sad but we do have a nasty tendency of setting up residence in areas that are, well, not so good and then continuing to live in them despite knowing that they are, well, not so good. On my more cynical days, I think "god, we're kind of dumb" because we chose to live in flood plains, in seismically active areas from quakes to volcanoes, tornado alleys, or just plain inhospitable weather areas (looking at you people way up north). Thing is, we look at an area and think "how beautiful"--totally forget that our neighbor's backyard view of the Sound could very well be ours one day. I had a geology professor once who stated that he had purchased future beach front property on the coast that was actually across the highway from the "beach front". He said that he's fully expecting it to be beach front by the time he dies...lol.

And for the record, I live in an area with a megathrust quake history, a volcano not so far off and the occasional super nasty wind storm so I'm not thinking that I'm any better than anyone else lol. I've lived through earthquakes, roof ripping wind storms and an eruption...you'd think I'd question the rationality of living here but nope...I moved to a "safer" area for a while and still chose to move back here, lol. So yes, I'm definitely included and worse yet, I have the education to know better, lol.

reply to post by crappiekat

Originally posted by crappiekat

I must say those people in that picture are either alot braver or dumber than me. I wouldn't be near that edge.

Somewhat recently, I came to a sort of realization about myself.

I love looking at various pics of beautiful nature. Sometimes, those pics show different lookout type areas. It seems that EVERY time I see a pic which shows people standing atop a big rock cliff, there is ALWAYS a big crack behind them somewhere.

After calling several people idiots. (yes, I'm referring to the people in the pic on my screen. I talk to them. lol).... Anyways, I'm sure that I have been in similar situations many many many times. The only real fear is usually about stepping over the edge. You know you don't wanna slip and fall over. No matter where you are, a firm ground beneath your feet will give you feelings of comfort.

Standing near the edge of a cliff always looks much scarier from a distance.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


There's really nowhere that is completely safe. Everywhere is a gamble. Different locations just have different types of threats. It's a vicious cycle.

If you don't wanna live in areas of earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, or hurricanes, you can just move to Tornado Alley where your house may fall into a sinkhole, or get flooded out by the river.

I'm sure we've all seen videos where someone whose home was just destroyed by a hurricane or tornado, is saying that they had finally just finished rebuilding it after it had been destroyed by last year's hurricane or tornado.

Originally posted by WhiteAlice

I had a geology professor once who stated that he had purchased future beach front property on the coast that was actually across the highway from the "beach front". He said that he's fully expecting it to be beach front by the time he dies...lol.

What are his plans for the area, after he dies? Gonna pass it on down the line to his kids, then maybe his grandkids will be the ones living there when it goes down the next time? lol

Might be better off to just sell it, and give them the money.

reply to post by BrokenCircles


Hee hee, yep. Actually, in terms of hazards, coast lines are the worst and moving more intercontinental is a bit safer. His overall point was that, before buying a home, be certain to assess the hazards for the area and make sure that where you are sinking your money into doesn't get swooped up by "an act of God". Basically, check the BLM's maps for flood plain history and gauge it--if it's a 4 year flood plain, don't buy. If it's a 100 year flood plain, well, when was the last flood? And so on. So basically, be smart about where you buy land.

Actually his expectation was that his buying the "cheaper not on the coast" property would equate to his children or grandchildren being able to sell it for a whole lot more when it became right on the coast property, lol. He was a strange, funny man...

reply to post by BrokenCircles


I guess the reason I feel that way is because I'm afraid of height



This is the latest info I can find. Oregonlive

reply to post by BrokenCircles

That would've been one hell of a ride, to be in that house.
I really can't even imagine how scary it would actually be.

I hope that the authorities would let whoever who lives in that house that went a-sliding- still live in it... It's probably in the same approximate location as before, except that now it's at sea-level... Beach front property! Yay!

ETA: WhiteAlice and BrokenCircles.... you kind of alluded to it as well.... Good Job...

reply to post by MarkJS

Originally posted by MarkJS

I hope that the authorities would let whoever who lives in that house that went a-sliding- still live in it... It's probably in the same approximate location as before, except that now it's at sea-level... Beach front property! Yay!

Maybe not, but I think you may be looking at it wrong, just as I was at first.

I originally thought that house was somewhere up on top, near all of the other houses. Then I went back to it later, and realized that every lot still had a house on it. Then I also noticed the road that cut down the hill through the trees, and closer to the shoreline where that house was.

I'm sure it still would've been a heck of a ride, but a much much shorter ride than I had originally thought. lol





I just realized that DailyMail has a lot more pics up now, and much better quality than the previous pics.

One of the homes is Steve Ballmers vacation home he can afford to fix the damage.. theres a good chance he was there. I can't say here due to a legal paperwork I signed stating I cannot speak of my work on any social media sites. But his vehicle was seen at a fjord dealership service department in Bellevue last week..