Posted on 01/13/2005 11:01:24 AM PST by ConservativeStatement
No one lost more than (Jimmie) Wallet, who had gone out for ice cream when the mudslide hit, killing at least 10 people. His wife, Mechelle, was the first to be found. Around 2 a.m. Wednesday a group of firefighters and several of Wallet's friends carried her to the makeshift morgue at the town's gas station.Two hours later, his youngest daughter, 2-year-old Paloma, was removed on a stretcher. Her older sister Raven, 6, was next, soon followed by 10-year-old Hannah. The three girls were found next to each other, apparently sitting on a couch when the slide broke apart their house, pushing it for about 100 yards and covering it six feet in muck.
(Excerpt) Read more at sanluisobispo.com ...
I was in tears driving home while Glenn Beck read this story.
It was very disturbing to me to watch the media shove their microphones in his face, begging for an interview.
what a horrible nightmare
"It feels like have some stupid news person asking me stupid questions."
I saw him being interviewd on one of the cable channels.
:-(
Amen!
Despicable jackals!
If you read the geologist reports on La Conchita it actually sort of makes one want to prosecute all the parents who lived there who lost kids for murder....
The evidence was obvious and plain as day the area was unsuitable for human habitation.
My wife's hairdresser owns a house with her sister a quarter of a mile from the mudslide. The neighbor kids were walking their dog when this poor fellow came home, the authorities at the scene wouldn't let him into the area -- despite his family being there -- he pulled out a gun and fired off some rounds. The dog-walkers ran for cover and then home.
I was just thinking the same thing after I posted. There's a spectrum of risk from getting your house hit by a meteor (could happen to anyone but it's REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY rare) to having your house destroyed by a tornao in Oklahoma (REALLY rare, despite the common impression) to living in this La Conchita place (basically, this area was GUARANTEED to be destroyed in a landslide every 20 years at most) There's a point where you have to draw a bright line of stupidity.
I'd have to read more on the history of the area; I've read 3-4 articles now, and the earlier FR post with the geologists report. I'm unclear on what exactly the efforts were to force people out of there. And the thing is it's not like the children had a choice. It's one thing if a bunch of single adults want to live there; the children aren't the ones that decided to.
Based on what I've read about the resident's lawsuit against the irrigation above them, and their attempt to blame the whole disaster on the county for not "terracing" the hillside (which I'm sure would have cost a bajillion dollars for such a massive engineering project) it's clear they were all in a state of idiotic denial.
I have a friend who is a native Californian who has since moved east who recalled the area clearly (had to drive by every day on the way to and from Vandenberg) and remembered the previous landslide. She wasn't surprised at all that it happened.
Read this. You will conclude those choosing to live there were, in a sense, suicidal.
http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/projects/la_conchita/apcg2001_article/apcg2001_article.html
The county is saying that they've had sensors in place since the last slide, and that there was not discernible activity.
It's gonna get REAL uglly - and I wish Arnold had not made that comment to them about "helping them rebuild". I know he was touched by the heartache and the tragedy of it, but that remark is gonna come back to haunt him.
AND! I heard on the radio this morning, that they want the government to fix the hillside so that the can stay in their littel place of paradise.
I kid you not!!
I haven't seen the details on this, but with that kind of mud, it's solid but it's supersaturated with water. Probably lots of fine clay and not much sand. You get some rain, and a little more water goes into the mud, and just a little more water, and all of a sudden it goes from solid to liquid in the blink of an eye--and then back to solid again as the water escapes, with the people caught inside.
In effect, it turns from mud with water in it to water with mud in it, then back again.
Ugh.
The township/borough/city zoning board also bears some responsibility. They should condemn the ground and allow no more structures on it. The tax revenue isn't worth the destruction and tragedy.
< After the 1995 slide, Varele said, he thought about the dangers "all the time."
"It was sort of our choice to live there. It's not that we're dumb. It's just that it's a wonderful place," he said.
No, I think you are dumb. At the very least, get out at the first sign of rain. It had been raining for days.
No way is this the gub'ment's fault.
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