A
recent news
story
out of Quebec, Canada, reminded me of another disaster that can affect people
and communities. Earlier this month the bank along a portion of the Richelieu
River collapsed leaving one home only a few feet away from falling into the
chasm. Further erosion of the river bank continues, creeping further under the
home’s foundation. The house has been condemned now as being unsafe and the
owners have been forced to relocate. To make matters worse for this family,
their insurance company will not pay to replace the house as this kind of loss
falls into the natural disaster type of damage which is not covered by most
policies.
 |
Photo of 13
November 2017 collapse along Richelieu River (retrieved 16 Nov 2017 from The Weather
Network
website)
Situations
such as occurred in Quebec happen often as lands along the margins of rivers or
ocean and in mountainous areas give way to gravity, destroying everything in
their path. Where people or property is present the damage can be more than
just a natural erosion of land. Homes and businesses can be lost along with the
lives of people caught unaware.
Throughout
history there are many examples of landslides that ruined farms and
communities. In some cases the slippages occurred over a longer period (weeks);
in a few the events happened in just minutes. The latter inevitably were the
most deadly as people in the path had little or no warning.
A
2014 landslide in Washington State took the lives of 43 people when a wall of
mud, sand, water and trees virtually obliterated a residential community near
the town of Oso.
 |
An
aerial image of the Oso landslide on 13 April 2014. Photo Credit: University of
Illinois engineering professor Tim Stark (retrieved 17 November 2017 from phys.org website)
The
area had received record-breaking rainfall in the preceding weeks, resulting in
saturation of the slope. With the slide starting at a high elevation relative
to the houses it built up a high degree of destructive energy against which
little could withstand.
Along
the southern coast of England, erosion has resulted in instability of the land.
Major collapses have been records for the past five centuries. Normally they
have begun with crack developing above the cliffs with subtle slipping of large
blocks. Over periods of several days or weeks these blocks begin the slide
toward the sea. Once moved, waves and currents begin their assault, taking away
the material and leaving an undisturbed cliff wet hundreds of yards back from
the original shoreline. And the process begins again.
One
such event was chronicled in a special
publication
in 1840 (Coneybeare and Dawson’s memoir
and Views of Landslips on the Coast of East Devon). In this book, the
authors described the 1839 Bindon landslip in detail, and included several high
quality illustrations. Landslips and erosion continue along the English
coastline with many farms and towns in constant danger of being lost.
Like
many other natural processes, landslides can result in devastating
consequences. Often they accompany or are caused by earthquakes. Whether lives
are actually lost – and there have been thousands over the centuries –
livelihoods have certainly been impacted with loss of land and homes. In many
instances, as with the recent case in Quebec, losses could not be replaced
because either owners had no insurance or insurance policies did not pay out.
In the past people may have been forced to leave areas where they had lived for
decades, especially if their homes and businesses were gone.
A
brief description of 26 catastrophic landslides of just the 20th
century can be found here. A summary of
landslides over the centuries can be seen here, The ten
deadliest are listed here. The greatest
loss of life occurred in Ningzia, China in December
1920 when a major earthquake triggered 675 landslides that resulted in massive
destruction of property and claimed over 100,000 lives.
Genealogists
might pay attention to the areas in which their ancestors lived to determine
whether a natural event such as a landslide could have affected lives and
livelihoods.
