By Leischen Stelter
American Military University
Even for someone as highly trained and experienced as Jack Reall, who has been involved with Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) for 20 years, the catastrophic destruction of the March 22 landslide in Oso, Washington was incomprehensible.
“It’s being referred to as a ‘mudslide,’ which makes you think of soupy mud coming down the mountain, but in reality that land was moving at speeds of 100 miles an hour when it impacted other materials,” said Reall. “Mass being moved at that speed causes enormous destruction.”
Responders at the scene expanded on the devastating collapse pattern: “The mountain didn’t slide like an avalanche that starts at the top and slides down. It actually blew out at the bottom. And all of that energy, because of the weight of top on it, blew across the river and brought all that water and material in it,” said Lt. Richard Burke, a firefighter and incident spokesman in a recent news article.
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