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Tag: Washington mudslide

  • Mudslide Death Toll In Washington Rises To 37

    The March 22 mudslide that happened in the Cascade foothills of Washington state continues to devastate. After a heavy rain, the hillside collapsed above Stillaguamish River. It has recently been reported that the official death count has risen to 37 after search representatives located another person amidst the mud and debris. Tragically, nobody has been pulled alive from the rubble since the initial search and rescue efforts.

    According to spokesman Lars Erickson the damage is immeasurable. “We don’t know how extensive the damage is. There are a lot of variables; timing could easily change significantly. We are working to get permission from property owners of that road to find a way to have some kind of limited local access to ease detour strains on communities there,” he said.

    The mudslide impacted roughly a mile of state Highway 530, which affects the direct route between the town of Darrington (that has a population of 1,300) and Interstate 5. According to representatives from the Department of Transportation, the process of clearing mud and other debris from the area could take up to three months.

    Search and rescue efforts continue as there are still seven people presently classified as missing. President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Oso sometime next week to meet with survivors, family members who have lost loved ones, and search-and-rescue workers who have been devoted to recovery efforts. Survivors of the horrific event have been devoted to personal recovery efforts while still remembering those who lost their lives due to the tragedy.

    Image Via Wikimedia Commons And Courtesy Of SPC Matthew Sissel

  • Oso Mudslide: Identifying Victims Difficult Task

    The Washington mudslide which occurred near Oso last weekend has taken a devastating toll on the community.

    Dozens of homes were damaged and at present, the number of confirmed dead stands at 18.

    The somewhat good news in this grim situation is that the number of dead and missing has been revised downward significantly within the past week. At one time it was feared that as many as 220 people were missing in the mudslide, with dozens of potential fatalities.

    The number of missing has since been adjusted to 30 individuals. It’s expected that the number of dead could climb as high as 27.

    The process of recovery has been frustratingly tedious.

    Jason Biermann of the Snohomish Department of Emergency Management said that recovery crews are often “making partial recoveries.” This causes a significant delay in the time needed to properly identify the remains.

    Snohomish County executive director Gary Haakenson said to reporters on Friday that the act of recovery is a “very slow process”. Haakenson blamed conditions at the recovery site. Heavy rains had turned some areas into something akin to “quicksand”.

    The weather is making it hard to find victims and the remains that are recovered make it hard to identify victims.

    This is no doubt frustrating the community and family members still waiting for news about their loved ones. Officials have already stated that it’s likely some bodies may never be recovered, leaving some to wonder if missing relatives will ever be identified.

    Authorities have also stated that they do not expect that they will find survivors at this stage, only deceased victims. That expectation peaked as no survivors were recovered beyond the first day of the mudslide.

    Thus far only a handful of victims have been positively identified. This includes 45-year-old Christina Jefferds, 55-year-old Stephen Neal, 69-year-old Linda McPherson, and 66-year-old William Welsh. Kaylee Spillers is the youngest victim to have been identified thus far. She was only 5 years of age.

    Image via YouTube

  • Washington Mudslide: Bodies May Never Be Recovered

    As many as 220 people were feared to have been missing at one point due to the fatal Washington mudslide that happened this past weekend.

    Darrington, Wash. residents were blindsided by the natural disaster, now blamed for over twenty deaths. The number of those missing has significantly dropped over the past few days as persons become accounted. Some have been found to have not been home at the time of the incident. The bodies of others have since been recovered.

    The first of such victims to be identified by name was 45-year-old Christina Jefferds. Jefferds’s daughter, Natasha Huestis, had initially been feared to have been among the victims. It was later learned that she’d gone to Arlington the morning of the mudslide.

    Tragically, Huestis’s infant daughter, Sanoah, was left with her grandmother. The 4-month-old is still missing.

    “It’s stressful to think about,” said Doug Massingale, the baby’s grandfather. “A little baby that hasn’t gotten a start yet in life. It’s too much.”

    There are believed to be as many as 90 victims still trapped within the mud and debris. Though an attempt to recover the bodies has been ongoing, it is believed that some bodies may simply never be found.

    Though rescue workers are using heavy equipment like bulldozers and even their bare hands to try and find the remains of the missing, some areas are simply too dangerous to try and get at. Putting rescuers at risk to find individuals who are likely dead is an unrealistic request, no matter how painful the alternative is.

    For the families of the missing and likely deceased, not having a body raises questions of exactly what they are to do going forward. How much time will pass before the loved one is declared dead? Not having a body to bury, what sort of unique funeral arrangements must be made?

    These are just a couple of the painful questions that some will have to ask as recovery efforts begin to wind down.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Washington Mudslide: Death Toll Expected To Rise

    There are still nearly two hundred people missing following a devastating mudslide that hit forty miles north of Seattle, Wash. on Saturday morning.

    As volunteers pick through the rubble, experts fear that the death toll could spike sharply in the coming days.

    Snohomish County Fire Chief Travis Hots says that the mudslide is responsible for at least 14 deaths thus far. Over 176 people remain unaccounted for.

    The mudslide is also blamed for the destruction of dozens of residences.

    Even as Hots said authorities offer up their “deepest sympathies and condolences to the families” of those impacted by this terrible event, he also admits that he expects the death toll to climb “throughout the day”.

    That may be why the focus of emergency responders has changed at this point, shifting from a rescue operation to a recovery mission.

    Volunteers and officials continue to hope for the best even with the grim task ahead.

    “I never lose faith and a lot of the people in this community will never lose faith,” said John Pennington. Pennington is the Snohomish County’s director of emergency management.

    Speaking to on NBC’s “Today” show, he admits that despite his best hopes, operations “are turning that very delicate corner in the recovery operation”.

    Over 156 volunteers are working hard to try and get at possible survivors, but the weather will make it difficult.

    The region is set to see record rainfall. All of that water-soaked ground which will keep the search area unstable and potentially dangerous.

    With the delays and so many still missing, it’s inevitable that the death toll will climb. However, authorities say they are confident that there are still survivors who are simply waiting to be rescued.

    Regarding the full count of those unaccounted for, Pennington said, “I believe very strongly [it’s] not a number we’re going to see in fatalities. I believe it’s going to drop dramatically.”

    Persons have been heard calling for help somewhere in the debris. The number of persons crying out for rescue cannot be determined at this time.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • 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.”

    Image via YouTube

  • 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.

    Image via YouTube