At least 15 people are dead and dozens more are missing.

In the mountainous areas like western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, heavy rainfall is not just a hassle, but can lead to problems exacerbated by the region’s constrained topography.

State transportation workers found wet ground may have contributed to the small landslide, despite the lack of recent rain.

When 200 million metric tons of rock tumbled down a remote Southeast Alaska mountain in October, nobody was around to see it. But thanks to a beefed-up seismic network and a new system that can distinguish landslides from earthquakes, scientists knew it had happened.

High rainfall this month is being blamed for a major landslide near Sitka. The US Forest Service reports that a 100-acre slide came down in the Starrigavan Valley, about ten miles from town. The slide, and water damage to an ATV trail in the valley and other hiking trails elsewhere in Sitka -- all add up to a tough month for the agency.