Hurricane Maria ‘triggered 9,960 landslides in Dominica’

A study by a Dutch university has revealed that almost 10,000 landslides occurred in Dominica during the passage of Hurricane Maria in September.

The wide-ranging project, conducted by students at the University of Twente, used high-resolution images from the Pleiades satellite focused on the weeks immediately after the natural disaster.

According to results, a whole of 9,960 landslides happened, with 8,576 classed as “debris slides”.

Of the others, 1,010 were “debris flows”, while the remaining 374 were “rock falls”.

The researchers also confirmed that intense rainfall caused almost all of the rivers on the island to flood.

Future woes?

The images used for the project were poured over by interpretation experts, who mapped landslides as polygons. The reproachers divided the island by areas.

The most concerning news is that the research reveals Dominica is likely to face further problems in the future.

“Dominica will face some new problems for mountain hazards in the coming years, as many of the fresh scarps may produce more debris, and many tree trunks are still on the slopes or in the river channels,” the report said.

And due to changes in landscape following Hurricane Maria, landslides could now cause a “series of cascading hazards”.

“For example, landslides or debris flow blocking rivers and resulting in outburst floods,” the study concluded.