Mac Crawford Earth Science

‘A Wall of Mud’ in California, and Warnings to Heed El Niño

Lovett, Ian. "‘A Wall of Mud’ in California, and Warnings to Heed El Niño."The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/17/us/a-wall-of-mud-in-california-and-warnings-to-heed-el-nino.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

In the article, ‘A Wall of Mud’ in California, and Warnings to Heed El Niño by Ian Lovett,  the El Niño storm is discussed, as impacting all of California but mostly Los Angeles. This storm will most likely occur this winter but pre-storms are leading to turmoil in California. Several hours of rain caused the mud on the hillsides of Interstate 5 to slide down onto the Interstate. First, a mudslide occurs when mud and other earthly materials fall from a hill. This mud fell straight onto the road, which was treacherous. Famous Interstate 5  connects San Francisco with cities like Sacramento and Seattle, so this hurt trade and traveling purposes. The article mentioned a woman named Ms.Rose, a civilians; she said “I saw the mudslide — it looked like a brown waterfall coming down the mountain. It was like Niagara Falls but brown, like the chocolate waterfall from Willy Wonka. Cars were all crashing into each other because there was 15 feet of water. Semi trucks were stuck in it. It was the most serious thing I’ve ever seen.” This quote speaks to the force and power that a mudslide has and how dangerous it is. The article describes how luckily, no one of the three hundred people who were in cars where the mudslide occurred, were hurt in anyway. Another personal account the article gave was how a family was stuck in their car for over two hours and then finally found by the Sheriff. The article then explained that the fire department and police members are somewhat unhappy with the people who were caught in this mudslide. They were not happy because they warned the people to not travel on that particular road and they still did. Finally, the article stated that the government has set up a website devoted to help prepare people for the El Niño. On the website you can find ways to protect your house and family through the storm. This article briefly described El Niño but thoroughly described the impact of mudslides, in particular the one that occurred on Interstate 5.

This article is very prevalent and important to life and society of the people of California. The article explains how no one listened to the law enforcement and government and therefore put themselves in a dangerous situation in the mudslide. As you can see this article is making a connection to all of the planet because the article basically says that we should listen to the government more with weather problems and storms. This article also connects to anyone who has personally been in a place where a mudslide occurred and how dangerous they can be.

The article overall was very well written and pretty detailed. One thing I believed the article could have touched upon was the actual science behind mudslides. For example, one question the article did not answer is what conditions lead to a mudslide. The article, however, does do a great job of catching the reader's attention when the writer uses in personal accounts of the mudslide. Also, the article was written with professionalism; for example there were many short paragraphs which is common in articles. Finally, there were almost no grammatical errors which enhances this article. Overall this article was well written and was well connected to science.