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Tag: 18 missing in mudslide

  • Massive Mudslide In Washington: Search For Life Continues

    The search for survivors continued on Monday after searchers reported hearing screams on Saturday of those who were most likely trapped just after a massive mudslide took out nearly 30 homes, and the lives of eight people.

    Sunday, 18 people were still unaccounted for, but search teams could not get into the “quicksand” like mud to try to search on the ground, so search crews scoured the area from the air. However, as of this morning, air and ground crews are still hoping to find survivors in the destruction but fairly certain there will be more casualties.

    After geologists flew over the disaster area via helicopter, they were able to determine that it was safe enough for ground crews to search the muddy, tree-strewn area for possible survivors, Travis Hots, chief of Snohomish County Fire District 21, told reporters Sunday.

    “We didn’t see or hear any signs of life out there today,” he said, adding that they did not search the entire debris field, only drier areas safe to traverse.

    The massive mudslide that engulfed State Route 530, a rural enclave about an hour north of Seattle, has concerned officials as to further survivors: “there may be people in their cars. There may be people in their homes,” said Hots.

    Crews are hoping that many more of the missing people turn up at shelters, at friends homes or have fled the area, however, many officials fear that they could have been trapped and could not be saved.

    Washington Gov. Jay Inslee described the scene as “a square mile of total devastation” after flying over the disaster area midday Sunday. He assured families that everything was being done to find their missing loved ones.

    “There is a full scale, 100 percent aggressive rescue going on right now,” said Inslee, who called this disaster a “state of emergency.”

    “I get a sense we’re going to have some hard news here,” Inslee added.

    Some of the victims are still struggling for their lives at a local hospital, most in critical condition and one has died. “Basically, the people were swept away, pinned up against things, covered,” Harborview spokeswoman Elizabeth Hunter told The LA Times, adding that most of the mudslide victims suffered “crushing injuries.”

    The American Red Cross set up operations at a local hospital, and evacuation shelters were created at a middle school and community center.

    “This is the worst thing that’s ever happened in our community,” Trudy LaDouceur of the Darrington Fire District told the Daily Herald. “For all of us, even though we’re small between Arlington and Darrington, we’re all connected, we’re all neighbors. We’ve all lost people today.”

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  • Washington Mudslide: 3 People Dead, Many Missing

    Three have died and eighteen people are unaccounted for after a massive landslide occurred in northwest Washington state, officials said on Sunday.

    Search teams are still looking for victims hit by the slide, which happened in eastern Snohomish County. Underneath all of that mud, searchers reported hearing screams, some thought to be children, coming from the area hit by the landslide late Saturday.

    Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said at a news briefing that “we suspect that people are out there, but it’s far too dangerous to get responders out there on that mudflow.”

    Searchers in helicopters will be flying over the square-mile area of the mudslide on Sunday in an effort to find people who may have been able to get out on their own, or are trapped and possibly still alive.

    Authorities are also trying to determine how to get responders on the ground safely, Hots said, describing the area, “like quicksand.”

    Shari Ireton, spokeswoman for the Snohomish County sheriff’s office said it is unclear if the missing people are trapped or have simply not reported their whereabouts. The sheriff’s office is asking people affected by the slide to report to the Red Cross so an accurate count can be made of the missing.

    The three deaths were confirmed by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. Another eight people have been rescued and were being treated at local hospitals. At least six houses were destroyed, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

    Lt. Rodney Rochon, head of the Snohomish County sheriff’s special operations unit said a 6-month-old baby was airlifted to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center and is in critical condition.

    “We’ll be here all night long doing what we can to rescue people,” Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said.

    Trenary, speaking at a televised news conference, did not specify what kinds of sounds were heard. He said the search was extremely difficult due to the sheer devastation to the area, which lies about 40 miles north of Seattle.

    “There’s nothing left in the area,” he said.

    The speed and severity of the slide was unbelievable, witnesses said it came so fast that there wasn’t time to react. It covered at least a 360-yard long section of the road, with mud and debris up to 20-feet deep.

    “In three seconds, everything got washed away,” said Paulo de Oliveira, who was driving on Highway 530 when the slide hit around 11 a.m. “Darkness covering the whole roadway and one house right in the middle of the street.”

    De Oliveria said he was behind two other vehicles when the slide hit. “I came within about 50 feet of being washed out.”

    He got out of his car and heard a woman scream from one of the engulfed houses.

    “Along the river, I saw one place where there were two homes and they were just gone. Nothing left but a portable toilet … destruction all around.”

    Robin Youngblood was sitting in the living room with her friend, Jetty Dooper, when they heard a crack.

    “All of a sudden there was a wall of mud” about 25 feet high, she said. “Then it hit and we were rolling. The house was in sticks. We were buried under things, and we dug ourselves out.”

    Youngblood said she scrambled onto the top of the clothes dryer, and Dooper onto a dishwasher.

    Covered in mud and shivering, they waited for perhaps an hour until they were lifted a short distance by helicopter and placed on an ambulance, Youngblood said.

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