Lessons from Oso

A few days after a million tons of mud, stone, and wood slid down a steep hillside above Oso, claiming 36 lives (8 still missing) and burying a square mile of land up to 65 feet deep, Dr. Bill Wulsin phoned me and invited me to leap into action. I had just finished my final exams and was comfortably at ease, like a surfer drifting on the ocean between sets, waiting for the next group of waves to arrive. There it was and it was a big one.