China Landslide

How do landslides occur? 

When earthquakes occur in a certain area with steep slopes many times soil slips causing landladies. Otherwise heavy rainfall can start the result of a massive landslide. 

On August 8 a landslide left a huge impact in Zhouqu, China. According to the Xinhua news it had taken about 1030 peoples lives and over a thousand people have been reported missing. 

So what created this landslide?

The construction of hydroelectric power plants, mining, deforestation had started the landslide. In simpler terms it was a man made disaster! Leaving the heavy rainfall to the side the main reason this landslide occurred is because of the construction of the hydroelectric power pants. 

Why was it so devastating? 

This landslide has  killed over 1030 people because the mud and rock flow crushed or braided hundreds of buildings! There was so much buildup building onto the landslide that the landslide triggered from a small heavy rainfall. This huge landslide buried over 300 buildings, left 66% of the country without power and left many people dead!

Could it be prevented?

After this huge deserter media has been having debts if the landslide could have been prevented. SOme say it could have been controlled if illegal mining was stopped and deforestation was kept to a minim. With such heavy rainfall the public could have been warned about a landslide occurring. Some say it could have not been prevented because who would have known that the landslide was going to happen a free days after the rainfall. I think it could have not been prevented however it could have been predicted. Knowing that theres been mining and deforestation happening. The day it started to rain a lot the public should have been told and encouraged to move further away from the area thats been mined. The area in general was looking vulnerable from seeing all the logging and urban planning that has been happening around it.

Was there a way to warn the locals?

The country has a warning system set in place however was failed to warm the locals.  The system ,being told by an expert, was only made to warm about small local landslides not big ones. There is only basic funding for the warning system so there was not a lot of check points to help detect the landslide coming towards the city. The government could have sent out a civil defence alarm to warm the public or had news channels warning the public once they figured out what was happening.