The death toll from a devastating weekend mudslide in Washington state has climbed to 14 people as six more bodies were found, while the number reported missing continued to swell two days after the tragedy, authorities said.
As many as 176 people were reported missing in the massive landslide, and local emergency management officials expressed doubt anyone else would be plucked alive from the muck that engulfed dozens of homes when a rain-soaked hillside near Oso, Washington, collapsed on Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, concern lingered about flooding from water backing up behind a crude dam of mud and rubble dumped into the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River by the slide in an area along State Route 530, about 90 km northeast of Seattle.
“The situation is very grim,” said Travis Hots, the local fire chief. “We’re still holding out hope that we’re going to be able to find people that may still be alive. But keep in mind we haven’t found anybody alive on this pile since Saturday in the initial stages of our operation.”
President Barack Obama, who was in Europe yesterday for a meeting with world leaders, signed an emergency declaration ordering US government assistance to supplement state and local relief efforts in the aftermath of the mudslide and flooding, the White House said.
Several dozen homes were believed to have sustained some damage from the slide, John Pennington, director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, told reporters at a command post in the nearby town of Arlington.
More than 100 properties were hit by the cascading mud, 49 of which had a house, cabin or mobile home on them, Mr Pennington said. At least 25 of those homes were believed to have been occupied year round.
“I’m pissed off I’m losing my house. I mean I hate to lose it. I’ve been working on it for 15 years,” said 73-year-old Dennis Hargrave, who drove up from Kirkland, near Seattle, to learn what he could of his vacation home.
“But that’s not my concern. My concern is, are my neighbors still alive? Is anybody surviving this?” he said.
Rescuers using dogs, earth-moving equipment and aircraft searched under partly cloudy skies yesterday after treacherous quicksand-like conditions forced rescue workers to suspend their efforts at dusk on Sunday. Some workers, mired in mud up to their armpits, had to be dragged to safety.
No one was pulled out alive yesterday from the disaster scene, in an operation that has been stymied by treacherous conditions, with gasoline and other contaminants strewn across the muddy debris field, Mr Hots said.
The compressed mud filling some homes is like concrete, and it can take up to an hour to dig out four buckets of the stuff, he said.
Members of a search team were forced again to briefly retreat yestesrday from the western edge of the slide area after movement was detected along a 460-meter stretch of earth, said Rebecca Hover, a spokeswoman for the county executive’s office.
Agencies