Friday marks 10 years since 43 killed in Oso landslide

Friday marks ten years since the Oso landslide was triggered in Snohomish County.

At 10:37 a.m. on March 22, 2014, the once-forested hillside above Oso collapsed without warning in a massive landslide, destroying the Steelhead Haven neighborhood and killing 43 people.

Dozens of homes were wiped out when mud, rocks, trees, and debris roared down a hillside above the north fork of the Stillaguamish River.

A permanent memorial on Highway 530 will be publicly unveiled in a ceremony Friday morning.

It will honor the victims, survivors, and first responders of the mudslide — one of the deadliest in U.S. history.

After years of fundraising, the memorial received full funding from the Snohomish County Council in 2021, including $4.8 million.

Since 2014, a tribute has been going up in pieces. That fall, 43 trees were planted, one for each victim. Later, a row of bronze mailboxes was installed to represent the Steelhead Haven neighborhood destroyed by a wall of mud.