"Mass Movement" event in Colombia

'1 dead, 15 missing in Colombia slide'

I was very pleased to see an article on the front page of MSNBC's weather channel that dealt with a country other than the US. Usually most of the stories involve something nominal that only affects a people on a very small scale, and the media just makes a big deal out of it. Apparently people dying and going missing in Colombia give merit for a front page story though, so I would argue against printing it.

This article basically states that heavy rains during this season have caused multiple slope failures that have led to mass movement events. Overall this year 145 people have died, as opposed to the 80 who died during last years rainy season.

I understand that there is more rain this year, but if that rain falls in the same region every year where these people are losing their lives wouldn't it make sense that there would be more preventative measures in place in this region? I feel as if this is a case where the government has just sort of turned a blind eye to what is going on here in this region. It will be interesting to see how the government reacts to future problems in this region as the wet season progresses.

It's Winter in New Mexico too

"New Mexico struggles with winter blast aftermath"

Snowstorms are generally synonomous with the midwest and east coast, but now apparently New Mexico has thrown it's hat into the ring. Some areas in New Mexico were dumped upon with up to 12 inches of snow, which led to the closure of many schools, roads, and businesses. The image below shows some residents of the village of Corrales making the harsh trek to work through the blizzard conditions.

New Mexico isn't an area of the United States where one would expect to see excessive amounts of snow like this, and for that reason they as a state lack the capacity to handle a situation such as this one. The article states they used over 700 workers and 500 seperate pieces of equipment in order to plow, salt, and sand roads.

I would imagine that the cost for mitigating this kind of weather is quite high in a place like New Mexico. The equipment and manpower probably had to be brought in from other areas in the state, and those related time and transportation costs couldn't have been too low. Thats what happens when a low frequency hazard hits an area such as this, they are ill prepared and it takes much longer to mitigate and get things up and running again.