We write a lot here about beautiful properties for sale, but you probably don't want to your house went sliding down the hill. Remember the winter of 1996, when the rains turned Seattle's hillsides into a water park slide for hundreds of homes?
Seattle's Department of Planning and Development says we're entering peak landslide season - between October and April. The department even hosted a live chat last week with Susan Chang, a city geotechnical engineer.
So how do you know if you're house is about to go sliding down the hill?
Go to this website web1.seattle.gov and click the boxes for steep slope, potential slide, and known slide. These are areas that are more likely than others in the city to have landsliding. You can also walk around your property and look for indicators of landslides such as leaning trees, water seepage from a slope, and cracks in the ground.
There are a few things to keep your house from slip slidin' away.
One of the most important is to maintain/clean your drainage system--make sure the water doesn't run to/on the slope. If you have an irrigation system, shut if off for the season and check its condition. Definitely keep fill and yard waste off of slopes. You can find a more complete list of do's and dont's here.
· DPD Emergency Management: Landslides [seattle.gov]
—Kery Murakami
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