Facts about Landslides that Make Me Want to Scree

Unlike other natural disasters, you don’t have to bury the victims of a landslide. Not much of a consolation, but I’m a “glass half-slid” kind of a guy.

♦

Landslides move, on average, at the rate of ten miles per hour; although, they can go as fast as thirty-five miles per hour once they get out of the school zone.

♦

Mudslides develop when steep ground with rocky debris becomes saturated with water. Often, they happen just after earthquakes… causing scientists to hypothesize that landslides are susceptible to peer pressure.

♦

Other planets, such as Mars and Venus, also experience landslides; and, their landslides are much faster due to the lack of school zones.

♦

Each year in the United States, rock slides kill around four dozen people and cause over three billion dollars in damage… even more if one of the four dozen people had a billion dollars in his wallet.

♦

A landslide may seem pretty benign, but they can kill. If a landslide is moving towards you and foaming at the mouth, move quickly away from it because it is probably a rabid fox.

♦

Underwater landslides can cause tidal waves that bring much needed water to the towns they destroy.

♦

To avoid the danger of landslides, do not live on the side of a hill; also, if you live at the bottom of a hill, try to live in a school zone.

♦

In 1987, Italy’s Val Pola landslide destroyed five villages, six hamlets and a couple of othellos. A mud wave a hundred feet high traveled over a mile, devastating all structures in its path. Authorities first denied the rock-slide had occurred, blaming the incident instead on a rabid fox.

♦

New Zealand had a landslide in Abbotsford in 1979. The disaster destroyed sixty-nine homes but had zero fatalities due to the fact that the slide was slowed by the six hundred thousand sheep that had infested the town.