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Settlements Reached For Oso Landslide Victims

Ted S. Warren
/
AP Photo
In this March 24, 2014, file photo, the massive mudslide that killed 43 people in the community of Oso, Wash.

Two years ago, the Oso landslide in Washington state killed 43 people and wiped out a rural neighborhood north of Seattle. Now a series of settlements have been reached for those affected by the landslide and the state has been order to pay an additional penalty. 

The settlements total more than $60 million. They resolve a lawsuit in which the families allege that the state, county, and a timber company, Grandy Lake Forest Associates, didn’t warn about the danger in the area and made damage from the 2014 Oso landslide worse.

In the latest, a judge has ordered the State of Washington to pay $1.1 million in damages to survivors and family members of those who died. That’s on top of a $50 million settlement from the state and $10 million  from the timber company that logged above the area of the landslide. The judge tacked on the additional punitive damages because the state’s expert witnesses were deleting emails that should have been preserved.

A Seattle native and former KNKX intern, Simone Alicea spent four years as a producer and reporter at KNKX. She earned her Bachelor's of Journalism from Northwestern University and covered breaking news for the Chicago Sun-Times. During her undergraduate career, she spent time in Cape Town, South Africa, covering metro news for the Cape Times.