sailing to whidbey island by bed
Whidbey Island, the land mass that blocks our view of the Straits of San Juan de Fuca and the lower elevations of the Olympic Mountains, just had the biggest landslide in modern Washington’s history. Whidbey added 300 feet more island out into Puget Sound, adding to its boast of the second largest island in America. The ground up on the bluff just slid right out from under the landowners’ feet, taking sheds and trees and houses down to the beach in one cataclysmic minute.
Now, we get slides here all the time. Some pretty big ones. But they don’t make the news and most of my neighbors, being dedicated couch potatoes, never see them down on the beach because they don’t much walk down there. Most are down around the Head, a six mile stretch of uninhabited beach only a few of us ever walk.
So when they see the LANDSLIDE on the national news, it’s a bit of a wake-up call since their homes sit precipitously on an unstable bluff that basically is a cliff of sand, not a gentle slope. Me, I couldn’t sleep at night wondering when the next quake set the sand liquefying and I’d be setting sail in my bedroom on a one way trip.
One of my neighbors was mostly concerned about the houses below, but never seemed alarmed that his would be what fell on them. I guess if I had half a million dollars of my retirement locked up in my bluff mansion, I’d be prone to some serious Denial too.
No one was killed over on Whidbey. And if that was the worst slide in memory, well, we’ll be okay if our bluff goes, I suppose my neighbors are figuring. Me, I’m figuring someday I’ll have waterfront if I live long enough. Course, then I’m the next lemming in line….
Hits: 20