Whidbey Island Landslide

Thanks for asking. We are OK, the slide was about 20 miles away and we found out about it on the news, like everyone else. We may see it today though as we are taking a ferry over to the Olympic Peninsula. Brat Mac LeMay, who now works with Ranger Tug, lives much closer but his home is well inland. We are the only two brats on the island as far as I know.
 
Whew! So glad to hear the news. We have been concerned how you guys are, not knowing how close to the slide you might live. The news reports make it appear very serious for the landowners in the area.

As an old Planning Commission member, I don't understand why the area wasn't zoned to prevent housing to be built on such an unstable area. Surely geologists would have identified (or been able to identify the area as slide prone). I could see evidence of past sliding (prior to the current slide) in the photos of the site so it seems like a natural event waiting to happen and a human error not to zone the area properly.

Perhaps after this event, it would be a good idea for citizens on Whidbey to insist on more careful zoning taking into account geological factors.

I was amazed, when on the Commission in the Las Vegas area of Nevada, how often the "greed" of developers allowed or altered zoning for their financial benefit when the geological factors (like a flooding hazard or land subsidence area) mitigated against housing development -- the risk and financial cost was simply passed on to the house buyer (who usually didn't recognize the hazard). I'm obviously biased, but believe every planning commission should have a geologist aboard either as a member or as a consultant.
 
We've been fishing near where this slide is all winter, and almost everywhere you look on these bluffs on Whidbey and Camano are smaller recent landslides and sluffage. Last time we were out I really noticed it.

If we had that kind of money, Id love to have a house on the bluff overlooking the Sound. I guess this is the gamble you make by having a really nice view. I really feel terrible for these folks, they dont know if they can ever go home. So sad
 
El and Bill":15w30ggo said:
As an old Planning Commission member, I don't understand why the area wasn't zoned to prevent housing to be built on such an unstable area.
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I agree...think of all the homes that are continuously rebuilt in the flood plain areas around the rivers. It happens all the time, then when the rivers rise, the folks living in them refuse to vacate the homes until it becomes life threatening for not only them but their rescuers.
 
And it can happen in areas miles from oceans or rivers. Several people were killed when an old irrigation canal finally weakened a hillside and the hill sloughed and wiped out a home with several people in the home killed. The county has subsequently bought all of the homes along that canal and is tearing them down. Very nice homes at that. But it is cheaper to buy the homes over market value than to pay the huge premium as a gov't entity against future damages. Since the first killer slide, that canal was closed down all together, but geologists say that the decades of leaking into the hillside has created permanent instability that simply cannot be ignored. The area has been zoned geologically unstable and no homes can ever be built there again. Oh, all this happened in Logan Utah a few years ago. We also suffer with 25 year major flooding in the low lands along the Logan River, but developers keep putting up houses and people keep buying them.
 
Bill, most of those homes on the water where built, or built the first time 60 years ago. You don't really except the 10 if not 100s of thousands of people who have been living on the sound, at waters edge or on cliffs, to just leave do you? How about the millions living in the kent valley? You know where the old c-dory factory is, to move just because every time Mt. Rainer blow's off the whole area floods with mud thirty ft deep all the way to Lake Washington and Elliott bay. I live In the only river system, and 600 ft above it, in Western washington that does not have a volcano at the top of it.

What I wanted to know about this slide, one of many we have had this year, is what type and how much of a wave was created when it hit the water? There seems to be a large amount earth that entered the water at the base. How much water did it displace and how quickly did it do so. Surf up??

Life is short , take care if you can but have fun doing it.
 
The US Geological Survey publishes flood plain zones (for different recurrence cycles, like 10-yr. floods, 100-yr. floods) for many streams and rivers. You can usually find out if they exist for your area with a google search on USGS site and often your library or town zoning commission has copies for your area.

If the Logan River flood plain is NOT zoned by the Planning Commission as a flood plain zone restricting construction of residences, you and others should get to some planning meetings and find out why not. Public response and pressure is the best counter measure to 'developer greed' in my experience and opinion.
I recommended flood areas to be held as 'natural areas' or open-land town parks (without developments and with warning signs about flooding) -- and NO residential or high use (restaurants, theaters, etc) for flood zones. However, commercial interests often prevailed (I made many proposals that died for a lack of a second, and voted negatively alone many times). BUT, public pressure was the best response to irresponsible greed. A newspaper reporter (former student of mine in an environmental geology class) finally got front page position on the most egregious cases -- and with strong public backing, aroused by the reporting, got vociferous crowds out to some of the planning cases.

It was an interesting role -- I was appointed to the commission by a city commissioner whose earlier appointment to the post was caught taking bribes and he needed to appoint someone who would be 'clean.' Well, he got more than he bargained for -- the Planning Commission was thrust into the limelight in Las Vegas, of all places -- and change often DID take place to protect folks.

Oh, and once when all the commissioners were attending a luncheon meeting to discuss upcoming proposed zoning changes, a land developer picked up the luncheon tab. When I went to pay my bill, and found it was paid for, and the cashier would not take my money, I got her to sign a statement that I tried to pay, she couldn't accept and that the developer had paid the bill. At the public Commission meeting to discuss that developers zone change proposal, right in the middle of his presentation I interrupted him, called for our secretary, gave her an envelope and asked her to read it aloud NOW before the public meeting. It was the statement from the cashier and my $10 bill I required the secretary to give the dude right there in public.

THAT event also made the front page the next day, and no one ever tried to bribe me (or pay luncheon bills again) for as long as I served.

Long story -- sorry -- but public pressure often works on appointed or elected officials.
 
Whoops, senior moment. Yes Merv and Cathy live on Whidbey. Their home is not that close to the water and should not have suffered ill effects from the slide.
 
Tom --
Zoning dictates future construction and is designed to prevent folks from building in hazardous areas. Folks already there cannot (or at least in our jurisdiction) be forced to leave due to zoning.
Insurance costs (or insurance companies refusing insurance) often inform folks of a high risk. Then, in my opinion, once informed of risk it is their choice, as long as their choice does not risk others -- if it does, then further community action might be required.
Of course, Mt. Rainier blowing its top or heating and causing floods once every blue moon, is not reason to zone for no construction. Certainly probable frequency of an event is VERY important to consider in zoning. Then, it is up to the individual to decide the degree of risk -- but important that that individual be informed. Insurance companies will probably also take this into account for property insurance and that helps inform.
The same is true of lowlands at risk for tsunami destruction -- probable frequency of the risk, and that information known for any developer.
On a geological field trip in so. CA, we spotted a house for sale right ON an active section of the San Andreas fault. The trip leader asked me and a female geologist to pose as man and wife and go to the realtor and ask about seismic risk of the site. The realtor gave us a piece of paper (from the state, saying realtors must inform us of seismic risk) -- so we asked him, what is the risk? He answered, "I don't know -- I'm just supposed to give out this paper if asked."
 
Tom -
I don't know if a sea wave was generated by the slide. A geologist friend is evaluating the landslide and if I hear news from him I will relay it to you.
Of course, a landslide into water will generate a wave -- how big is variable. Many tsunamis are caused by submarine slides, and this is another risk factor in the Pacific NW. We have previously discussed tsunami hazard on the Brat site in earlier posts -- it IS a hazard, since the Pac NW is a seismic risk area and many submarine slides are caused by earthquakes. There are actions to reduce the threat to a boater, if you hear on the radio of an earthquake in the vicinity. Simply put -- head to very deep water fast, and if none is near, get to land and up and away from the water.
 
I did chair a town (Near Logan) zoning commission for 3 years. I found that between state laws, county laws and federal laws that zoning commissions can only have about a 10% influence on most zoning issues. It also turns out that in spite of something being zoned a certain way, variances are often handed out as political favors, even in small towns. NOT on my watch, but prior to and after my watch. When my time expired, developers sighed with great relief. I was criticized in many meetings for inflexibility in granting variances. Oh well.

Everyone should serve on planning commissions and city councils and so on at least once in their lives. It is very educational and someone has to do it. Our commission was unpaid as are most smaller town commissions.
 
Ferd and Beth Johns bought a house on Skagit Bay near Oak Harbor and are moving from Bozeman.

I last saw Ferd on "Greybeard" with Dan Benjamin at Bahia Honda a few weeks ago. They moored next to us a few nights.

We hauled out at Bahia Honda two weeks ago and "Vagabundo" now sits on her trailer in our driveway in Bozeman. The 3,000 mile trip home was uneventful except for dodging rain and tornadoes back east and a spring snow storm in South Dakota.

Next stop for "Vagabundo" will be the San Juan's for crab season if not earlier.

Charless and Marjorie
 
My commission post was also unpaid. And, like your commission, we were bound by laws in all our decisions. And any of our decisions could be overturned by the city commissioners, who were the elected representatives of the people -- we were appointed so our decisions were really recommendations to them. But our decisions WERE important, since they had been open to public hearings and public opinion.

I agree -- serving on public boards and commissions (of all sorts) can be a great education and experience. Frustrating, oftentimes, of course, but that's public life, isn't it?
 
colobear":2ysxpf4g said:
Whoops, senior moment.
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Speaking of, doesn't Les Sr. live on north Whidbey not too far from Les Jr.?

The pictures of the slide are pretty amazing. Bill, I agree with Chuck - we are sure glad to have you around.
 
We are about 10 miles South of the slide on the East side of the Island and, as Barry says we are not directly on the waterfront, but neither are the houses that you see still standing !!! There were 2 roads and a forest of trees in front of them, last week.

Since most of the South end of Whidbey is Glacial Till we did a thorough search of the island before buying and it is pretty obvious where the slide areas are. Now you can simply look them up on Island county records and plot them on Google earth. The area in question comes up bright red on that program.
The same database also shows environmentally sensitive areas etc and was very useful in preventing us from buying another house a couple of years ago.

Mac lives further South and Les Senior lives way up North of the border :-) (Coupeville) like Barry. (just in case he forgot :-))
Only guy I know who has a house in the slide area is Steve Balmer and he is probably not too worried except for the fact that I heard thay had to drive across his property to get some of the people out. Hope they didn't spoil his lawn.


Merv
 
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