According to him, rapid snowmelt at the top of a mountain or during a period of intense rain fall could triggered a mudslide, due to the high volume of water mix with soil which causes it to liquefy and move downwards.
He further explained that mudslide could be vary from watery mud to thick mud with tons of debris, including large boulders , trees and even vehicles or houses, adding that mudslide were responsible for many deaths and property worth millions of united states dollars destroyed every year.
Mud, as he described it as a very thick and clingy substance that would rush downhill at a very high speed and it usually contained a lot of water, thus act like a flood than a landslide , and that mudslide was known to rush downhill up to fifty kilometres per hour, and at the same time lay waste every object on it way.
Patrick Koroma was quoted to having said that in 14 December 1999, mudslide struck countries Las Vargas, Venezuela, affecting over thirty seven kilometres of Venezuelan coastline, and after the said incident some expert estimated that up to thirty thousand people died as a result of the mudslide, including property worth over three billion united states dollars destroyed.
He also disclosed that in determining the causes of mudslide, expert normally used special terms including main scrap, shelves and toe, stating that the main scrap is the original area where the mudslide begins, the toe is the last area affected by the mudslide, whiles the shelves are areas where a mudslide path crosses hills or natural drops and a large mudslide can have multiples shelves.
In the area of preventing mudslide, the chief executive officer of CFS stated that one must know the area he or she lives and endeavour to know whether landslide or mudslide had ever affected such environment before, and during the period of heavy rains , stay tuned to weather broadcasting stations for alert, and if a mudslide warning is issued, make sure you secure a safe area, high ground away from it path in the event of any imminent mudslide.
He pointed out that the construction of house and reckless modification of land, earthquakes, volcanic eruption, and changes in ground water levels, alternative freezing and thwarting and the steeping of slopes by erosion triggered mudslide, coupled with over mountain mining and quarrying that have the potentiality to provide large number of material resources.
‘Water can triggered landslide because it’s heavy and adds a lot of extra weight to the land. The extra weight makes it more prone to and serves as slope materials which forces the soil or rock to succumb to force of gravity,’ Patrick Koroma maintained.
He warned people to reduce the construction of structures on hillside, and further stated that weak foundations are some of the important causes of mudslide, and concluded that people should also ensure standardized mountain mining and quarrying and strengthening the monitoring mechanism and improve on early warnings and emergency response.
