La Conchita landslide 1995 & 2005
The hillsides of Southern California are notoriously prone to landslides. On January 10, 2005 the steep cliffs behind the unincorporated town of La Conchita, in Northern Ventura County crumbled into the community killing 10, injuring 15, and destroying 31 homes http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-la-conchita-20150104-story.html#page=1. The same hillside had failed, in the same area ten years before in 1995 destroying 9 homes, but the community had gotten lucky the first time being spared any loss of life. Now 10 years later, the community of La Conchita is looking back at what has changed since 2005, and members of the emergency response system would be well advised to do the same.
Though the two previous events occurred after significant rainfall, the US Geological Survey has authored a study of the La Conchita area, siting geological evidence of frequent landsliding in the past several milenia that suggests this area is at significant risk for landslide activity even in the absence of rainfall (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1067/508of05-1067.html#conchita07). And yet the community of La Conchita continues to grow, with approximately 300 residents including about 30 children. And though the community has made efforts toward increasing preparedness for future events with emergency supplies and a tractor stored in a safer location within the community, a proposed modification of the hillside itself that would significantly reduce the risk of failure, remains stymied at the state government level.
The types of disaster most likely to affect Ventura County are fire, landslide and earthquake and as we have seen time and again, and though landslides are fairly predictable they still manage to incur incredible cost to both property and human life. The website http://readyventuracounty.org/ is a great resource for learning how to be prepared for a variety of disasters. Nurses would do well to keep themselves up to date with resources such as this, and with the disaster response plans in place at the facility with which they are affiliated… Because it seems that the people most at risk of harm due to landslides are not planning on getting out of the way any time soon.
