In the News

OSO, Wash. --The vast emptiness of 43 lost souls filled the air Thursday at the Oso landslide memorial. Experiencing that for the first time was U.S. Interior Secretary and Seattleite Sally Jewell.

"It's an eye opener," she said.

The former REI CEO was clearly moved by scene of the March 2014 landslide, the most deadly in American history.

"It's heartbreaking," said Jewell, choking back tears. "You see the pictures of children and moms and dads…it's tough."

Jewell visited Oso to find out what USGS experts have learned from last year's slide. What they're really learning, however, is how much they don't know about disasters like this one.

Complicating matters is the fact that there is no permanent budget for the USGS. It's money is due to run out in December. Without guaranteed funding, for which Jewell is pushing, there could be fewer people to predict when and where the next slide will occur.

"Because we don't know the risk of landslides like this in Washington state, it's difficult to say precisely which other communities might be potentially affected," said the agency's Jonathan Godt.

Jewell was joined by District 1 Cong. Suzan DelBene at the Oso firehouse, where they participated in an earthquake preparedness drill with students from Darrington Middle School. Much of Western Washington is at risk of a serious earthquake at any time. More pressing, though, are the wildfires that raged out of control for weeks in central Washington. It was the most expensive fire season in state history, burning more than 1 million acres. The U.S. Forest Service had to divert money from other programs to fight the fires. That left projects dedicated to fire prevention short, creating a vicious circle of fire.

DelBene has co-sponsored the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, which would dedicate money specifically to wildfire fighting.

Oso Fire Chief Willy Harper spent more than a month fighting the flames in central Washington this summer.

"This year we were able to go help on the east side with the fires," he said. "We started running into the people who were here to help us. The emotions came up again. It's still very raw."

"Disasters like these can happen in just about any community," added Jewell.