National Public Radio: Washington state, with its many steep slopes, streams and rivers and some of the heaviest annual rainfall in the country, is a mudslide waiting to happen. Add in soil erosion from logging, as was reportedly the case near the community of Oso before last week's tragedy, and the probability of such an event increases.
And, as we now know, this was just the latest in a string of mudslides in the area over the years as well as (apparently unheeded) official warnings about the potential for such a...