Digging for a landslide's explanation
By
Editorial Board
The Oregonian
October 10, 2008
Nothing seems more sudden and surprising than the landslide early Wednesday in Portland's West Hills, carrying a house down with it. Geologists will be digging through the damage for weeks, trying to pin down a definitive explanation of what happened.
"But don't be too quick to write it off as a freak occurrence, some
sort of natural disaster. The Audubon Society's urban conservationist
Jim Labbe swooped in Thursday morning with a reminder that long-ago
construction and development practices often trigger slides. And those
old manmade choices could have contributed to this one, Labbe wrote in
an email."
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