A buddy of mine at work said to me today, "Did you hear about the mudslide in Washington?"

Yeah... I had heard about it on CNN.  It was a :30 second clip wedged between the Chinese Satellites finding debris in the Indian Ocean and a graphic of a spotter plane flying in and out of Australia. 

"It was a square mile," he explained. "There's a shitload of people missing."

How big could a mudslide be?  CNN explained eight were dead.  I thought it was small news until I googled it and found out how big of a story it really was.  Eight people dead already, but another 108 are missing.

So how big is a square mile?  Let me put it in perspective. If you've ever been in downtown Columbus, Ohio, it's the distance between the river and US 71 and Spring Street to US 70. Or, that's about as half as wide as Manhattan from 59 street to 34th. We're talking practically the size of Put N Bay Island. And if you don't have an understanding yet, it's about the size of 485 football fields.

And don't really think about it as a mudslide.  Think about it as a side of a mountain collapsing and sending earth and water down the hillside in an area that's 485 football fields.  It's a massive avalanche except it's dirt not snow.

So take a moment and stop listening to all the crazy theories about where the plane landed and read this New York Times article. You'll be shocked, amazed, and saddened by the loss of life.

Learn more about Wal Ozello and other Pencilstorm contributors by clicking here