Is Groupon for Oso mudslide tour disrespectful?

Taken from Friday’s edition of The David Boze Show on AM 770 KTTH.

A number of people in the Oso-Darrington area are reacting with anger to a tour that takes rafters past the Oso mudslide area.

Pacific NW Float Trips, the company that sold the tour deal on Groupon, reportedly has been receiving all kinds of phone calls protesting their advertisement.

The Groupon description of the tour read:

“Excursions take guests past the site of the 2014 Oso Mudslide, with lunch included; portion of the proceeds benefit disaster survivors.”

The cost of the trip is $45 per person.

Members of the community are reportedly upset. They find it to be blood money and disrespectful to the dead.

I’d like to respectfully say, I’m not so sure about that.

Darrington resident Megan Fanning told KING 5: “This is not a tourist attraction, it’s a sacred place.”

Of course, the loss of life is a sad thing. It’s a horrible thing what happened to the people there. But it is also a natural disaster that has created a landscape that people are going to want to see.

Geologists have been there to study it, and other people are going to want to see it. The explosion of Mount St. Helens also killed a lot of people, but people still want to see the power of the mountain.

Dave Button, with Pacific NW Float Trips, told KING 5 they’re not trying to profit off the disaster.

“I’ve always wanted to do my part to try to help out,” said Button. “(We will) take people through the slide area … and educate people and be respectful of what happened here.”

The float trip offer also indicates a portion of the proceeds from the tour will benefit disaster survivors.

Bottom line, I don’t think people who go by the Oso mudslide site on the river or on the road are there to disrespect the dead. I think they’re just recognizing the power of nature, and that we never know when our time is, and that nature is more powerful than any of us.

Taken from Friday’s edition of The David Boze Show on AM 770 KTTH.

JS