First, I do not want to appear unsympathetic but much of this tragedy could have been avoided,

We travel through this area several times a year. We go steelhead/salmon fishing in the Skagit, do an annual fall foliage trip along North Cascade Hwy, through the Nat'l Park (If the pases haven't closed early), down through Darrington to Monroe and back over Snoqualmie and Blewett Passes. We also try to go see the eagles in early Spring along the Skagit (North Cascade Pass is almost always closed until May, at least so we have to go through the Darrington area).

The very first trip through the area, I noticed that many of the hills were clear-cut==nothing left to re-route or hold back erosion and many hills had homes at the base, right along the road. The bottom of the hills were a valley, 1/2 stream and 1/2 road==typical flood plains. Any ethical planner would have pointed out that any lender is going to require flood insurance. However, many Supervisors are "good ol' boys" and don't disclose or just ignore flood hazards, especially when the applicant is a friend or relative. This is not economic necessity but simple greed. "I don't want to pay for flood insurance" or "I don't want to leave buffers". We see this with docks on the Columbia. It is estimated that 90%+ of the boat docks are illegal and do not have environmental clearance (per a Corps Engineer I know). I'll bet most of these people refused to get flood insurance and the houses are not likely built to code.

It is safe to say that most, if not all of the flood plains on the west side of Washington is subject to flooding. Volcanic activity increases the risk (Just look at the Snoqualmie floods of a few years ago or the Cowlitz floods.) And other floods have occurred in this area. All you have to do is observe the hillside erosion and the logjams in the streams to know it is not safe. "Building your house on sand" as the Bible says. The same situation exists in SoCal every year or two after the Malibu fires and the resulting mud flows. But yet, they rebuild. And the cycle begins again.

For what it is worth, the lahars (volcanic mud slides) that will occur when (not if Rainier blows) will be worse. I've heard predictions that Seattle will be "gone" in 20-30 minutes from the resulting mud slides.

My prayers go out and I include a prayer that people learn from this trajedy and do not repeat the same mistakes as last time, God willing.