I was in tears driving home while Glenn Beck read this story.
what a horrible nightmare
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.
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
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.