Torrential rain in the World Cup city of Natal caused a landslide right around the time that the USA defeated Ghana. According to the Landslide Blog, the landslide destroyed 50 homes but there were no lives lost. A You-Tube Video showing the landslide as seen from a small UAV shows the devestation, and interestingly shows a storm drain that could have played a role in the failure, perhaps becoming overwhelmed after the 50 hours of rain that fell on Natal. [Source: The Landslide Blog. Image: NBC News]
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Teenage Girl Buried Alive in Beach Bluff Landslide
A teenage girl strolling on the beach in Pacifica, California was buried alive by a landslide. She was buried up to her chest, and a passer-by dug her out with his bare hands while more soil and rock fell around them. Story at KTVU San Francisco. See a nice oblique aerial photo of the beach prior to the landslide here. Those slopes don’t look particularly stable to me but what do I know?
Oregon Landslide News and Map
This is definitely the season for landslides, mudslides, debris flows and other mayhem in Oregon and elsewhere in the pacific northwest. It seems like every time I turn around there is another Google Alert in my inbox about a landslide related issue in that area. Having a hard time keeping up with it all, I decided to try something new. Click through to see a map of automatically updated landslide news in Oregon. Lets call it a Beta…so we’ll see if it works out. If it does, maybe I’ll try something similar for other areas or other items that tend to make it into the news. (Photo by Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian)