By Victoria Cavaliere
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Ten families who lost relatives in a Washington state landslide in March have filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging state and local officials were aware the area was at risk for a disaster but did nothing to prevent it, an attorney said on Monday.
Forty-three people were killed when a rain-soaked hillside on the north fork of the Stillaguamish River collapsed on March 22, sending a deluge of mud and debris down on a rural community on the outskirts of Oso in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
The slide, about 55 miles northeast of Seattle, engulfed about three dozen homes and partially swallowed a state highway.
A wrongful death suit filed in King County Superior Court said Washington state, Snohomish County and landowner Grandy Lake Forest Associates were aware that residents were at risk for a deadly slide but made no attempts to engineer the river or relocate homes.
"The 2014 Oso landslide disaster was not 'natural' but the result of a series of actions and inactions," the complaint said.
The lawsuit, brought by attorney Corrie Yackulic, said experts as far back as 1952 had warned the area was a landslide hazard partly because of increased logging activity that reduced tree canopy cover and allowed more rain to saturate the ground and river.
The suit cited a 1999 report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that warned of "the potential for a large catastrophic failure" of the hillside.
The area had seen several smaller slides, including in 2006 when a wave of debris blocked the river, causing flooding.
In the days following the Oso landslide, Snohomish County's emergency management director, John Pennington, said the Oso community understood the risks of living in the area, but he also described the catastrophe as "unforeseen."
Neither the state nor Snohomish County immediately responded to a request for comment. Grandy Lake Forest Associates was not immediately available for comment.
The suit, which seeks damages and funeral expenses, was the second wrongful death lawsuit filed against the government stemming from the slide.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)
