A huge cliff called a head scarp that towers 600 ft into the air has been left behind. Crews were evacuated from the area on Monday due to fears that the head scarp would come down too, but scientists have since given them the all clear to continue the search.

The mudslide seems to have been caused by recent heavy rains, the area received 200% of its average rainfall over the last 45 days. A local geologist said that Snohomish County had probably been plagued with landslides since the last ice age because it’s largely built of unstable glacial sediment. So it was probably a bad place to build a town in the first place, but how would you know?

The wall of mud also clogged the Stillaguamish River basically shutting it off. Officials were concerned that the area would then be faced with a huge flash-flood on top of the existing carnage. Thankfully the river has since started to flow through and around the blockage, so that phase of the disaster seems to have been diverted.

Mother nature knows no bounds when it comes to destruction. It kind of puts humanity’s puny size and strength into perspective.

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