Seattle: Since the 1950s, geological reports on the hill that buckled during the weekend in Washington state's Snohomish County have included pessimistic analyses and the occasional dire prediction. But no language seems more prescient than what appears in a 1999 report filed with the US Army Corps of Engineers, warning of "the potential for a large catastrophic failure".
Why did the county issue building permits if they had this information? What weren't they thinking?