More victims found as FEMA, National Guard join search (WA landslide)

[uppityperson]

Source: Seattle Times

Searchers on Tuesday added to the grim toll from Saturday’s mudslide near Oso, finding additional bodies in the muck and debris that once was a community.

Officials confirmed they had recovered 16 bodies since the slide, and believed there were as many as eight more that had been found but remained in the debris.

The announcement came in the evening, after rescue teams had expanded their search for survivors or bodies amid worsening weather conditions in a massive mudslide above the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River in Snohomish County.
(clip)

Hots, the fire official, predicted that rescue and recovery effort will take weeks. “”This is going to be a very long event,” he said....

A search dog sniffs through the debris field Tuesday. The recovery effort has been expanded to include hundreds of searchers.


A damaged vehicle sits in debris


Read more: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023221942_mudslidetuesdayxml.html

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16 bodies found, actively looking for 8 more. 176 still on "missing" list which is inaccurate as of now, a working list.

Bonus article, more of feature than LBN but bonus
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/03/mudslide-spares-husband-kills-wife/

Mudslide spares man, kills wife sitting beside him

Linda McPherson and her husband, Gary “Mac” McPherson, were reading the newspaper Saturday morning in their Oso home, separated only by a living room end table, when the trees outside started whipping from side to side, said their daughter Kate McPherson. They then heard a tremendous noise.

The couple never saw the mud. The impact shattered the house and shoved what remained about 150 feet, to the far southeast side of the slide, Kate McPherson said.

Her father, 81, woke up covered in mud. He was able to grab a stick and start digging himself out. Passersby helped extricate him from the slurry and debris. They found Linda McPherson’s lifeless body nearby....

[MannyGoldstein]

1. So awful. nt

[Cha]

2. So sad..:(

[Cha]

3. The President on the phone to Gov Jay Inslee.. :(

@PeteSouza: Pres Obama talks on phone to Washington Gov Jay Inslee about mudslide in Oso. Alyssa Mastromonaco is in foreground

http://theobamadiary.com/2014/03/25/the-presidents-day-3/

[uppityperson]

5. Aw man. Thank you.

[Cha]

6. You're welcome, uppity

[Beacool]

4. So sad.

Those poor people, what a terrible way to die.

[cilla4progress]

7. Just across the Cascades mountains from me.

Feels close to home.

Bless those lost souls, and may their crossing over be easy.

[Grins]

8. From the title

From the title, I assume, "FEMA, National Guard join search" that it was a federal taxpayer paid for, "soshilust" search...?

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Washington is a very blue state, so no irony there.

That county is a bit reddish perhaps..

Still.

If I wanted to educate people on the stone cold merits of a collective safety net, I'd do it without.. the sarcasm.

[uppityperson]

11. So? They are trying to keep untrained volunteers from getting hurt, stuck, killed.

Thanks for the kick but yes, we are working together to help each other during this disaster.

[countryjake]

16. Soshilust dogs...

Snohomish County Fire Chief Travis Hots said that his most effective tool has been dogs. Dogs and bare hands.

Those feds just joined in on the search on Tuesday. The local search and rescue teams have been there, practically non-stop, since it happened on Saturday morning and they are exhausted. Yesterday, they also approved a couple dozen local volunteers, community people who know the neighborhood well, to go in to assist in the digging.

[gblady]

17. watching the latest news conference

on local TV last night, that Fire Chief looked beyond exhausted.
My heart goes out to all those affected by this tragedy...so incredibly sad.

[countryjake]

19. Someone we know went down on Monday with his chainsaw...

and after only two days of searching, has come back home, so tired and dispirited. Totally exhausted and broken hearted.

The scene is just an impossible mess, so dangerous to even take a step in; those first responders, the local search and rescue teams who have been doing their best to find anybody, have been at it steadily for five days now, so they surely must be suffering from extreme fatigue and probably also the depression that comes with finding victims of a disaster such as this was. It is an ongoing tragedy.

[3Stones]

10. Awful what has happened in my neighbor state.

I only wish I could see more news coverage on this human tragedy in our country.

[DeSwiss]

12. Mudslides move quickly.

Outside Everett, Washington about a year ago:

Mudslides caught on tape

K&R

[countryjake]

13. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks...

which are also used by both Amtrak and the Sounder get hit by mudslides so often up here, it's a wonder that nothing disastrous has happened yet.

This year wasn't quite as bad (I think there were only two slides in Jan.) until the rains came back; during the first week of March there were three, immediately, and then a few more since then. They've spent millions trying to shore-up this water-level route that runs up the coast, but the hills just keep coming down on top of it.

The run between Seattle and Everett is down so many times in winter (with every slide, they must wait 48 hrs to restart passenger train runs), that commuting by rail is ridiculous. The tracks were buried something like 200 times last winter.


Is it safe to ride a train that goes on this track?


http://www.king5.com/news/Massive-slops-stabilization-projects-near-completion-to-improve-train-reliability-225882691.html

NW Mudslide Season 2013-14
http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/56618-nw-mudslide-season-2013-14/

[DeSwiss]

14. Nowhere is actually ''safe.''

''Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.'' ~Helen Keller

- Not knowing if it's safe or not sure as hell makes life interesting, doesn't it?

[countryjake]

15. Well, as someone who just loves to ride a train...

it really aggravates me that they spend all of that money to try and save those tracks, when they ripped out and ended a perfectly good inland run. I used to take that train all of the time to get down to Seattle, but now I'm scared to get on it. My idea of an adventure isn't finding myself inside a rail car, upside down in Puget Sound.

[uppityperson]

18. Original 911 calls and oh damn, First Responders. The search for bodies continues

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/03/heartbreaking-911-calls-document-initial-response-to-mudslide/

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/Official-on-deadly-mudslide-It-haunts-me-5349399.php?cmpid=fromhomecp

Search and cadaver dogs and rescuers using small bulldozers and their bare hands on Wednesday looked for victims and survivors of a deadly mudslide as local officials said they did everything they could to keep the rural community safe in the years before the catastrophe.

Snohomish County Emergency Management Director John Pennington said that following a 2006 landslide in the area, authorities took steps to mitigate risks and tell local residents about potential hazards. But he said the sheer size of this slide — which destroyed a neighborhood, likely killing at least 24 and leaving dozens missing — was overwhelming.

"It haunts me," a sometimes emotional Pennington said at news conference. "I think we did what we could do. Sometimes large slides happen."

Pennington said the landslide risk has been high this winter, and the Department of Natural Resources put out warnings on a routine basis.....

[countryjake]

20. Understanding how difficult it's been to recover any victims...

is so hard for many of the families who've been impacted to grasp. Until they see what it actually looks like. Some of their loved ones may never be found.



Family members search for mudslide victims



Aerial photo of the mudslide Image from Jay Inslee



An overview of the Steelhead Landslide devastation The Seattle Times

[uppityperson]

21. ‘They are finding people now’ and I posted more photos, it is incredible, the mud

I posted this earlier today, photo heavy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024730313


http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023234454_mudslidewednesdayxml.html

They are finding people now’: Grim mudslide search expands

“There are finds going on continually. They are finding people now,” said Steve Mason, a fire battalion chief from South Snohomish County, who is leading the westside operation.

Visibility is tough because wreckage is covered in gray muck. Backhoes scoop only partial loads, which are sometimes spread on the ground. Searchers then examine the muck for clues that could reveal whether a victim may be buried nearby.

“People are under logs, mixed in. It’s a slow process,” Mason said. Just then, a chain saw toppled a tree, clearing an additional area to search.

Right now, the official count remains at 16 deaths, with an apparent eight bodies found but not recovered yet. That will likely change today....

[countryjake]

23. Thanks for the heads-up! I hadn't seen your other thread. n/t

[uppityperson]

22. Grim reality: Some slide victims may not be found

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Grim-reality-Some-slide-victims-may-not-be-found-252505831.html

(clip)
Doug Massingale waits too, for word about his 4-month-old granddaughter. Searchers were able to identify carpet from the infant's bedroom, but a log jam stood in the way of a more thorough effort to find little Sanoah Huestis, known as "Snowy."

With little hope to cling to, family members of the missing are beginning to confront a grim reality: Their loved ones might never be found, remaining entombed forever inside a mountain of mud that is believed to have claimed at least 24 lives.
(clip)

Search crews using dogs, bulldozers and their bare hands kept slogging through the mess of broken wood and mud again Wednesday, looking for more bodies or anyone who might still be alive nearly five days after a wall of fast-moving earth destroyed a small rural community. But authorities have acknowledged they might have to leave some victims buried.
(clip)

The debris field is about a square mile and 30 to 40 feet deep in places, with a moon-like surface that includes quicksand-like muck, rain-slickened mud and ice. The terrain is difficult to navigate on foot and makes it treacherous or impossible to bring in heavy equipment.

To make matters worse, the pile is laced with other hazards that include fallen trees, propane and septic tanks, twisted vehicles and countless shards of shattered homes.
....

[uppityperson]

24. UPDATE, missing list is now 90, another 35 questionable

They have gotten in touch with some on the list, rid it of multiples, now are saying 90 that are still missing. There are another 35 questionable as they are people like "X who lived there had a friend Y" so putting X on the list of missing with Y being on the questionable list.

Listening to the just ending press conference, they did a really good job explaining what was going on, how to donate, etc. Press kept asking about that 90, did he really think there were 90. He kept repeating the numbers will fluctuate and of course I wish it'd go down to zero. No firm answers about the number as there are no firm answers yet.

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/Authorities-Mudslide-missing-number-drops-to-90-5349399.php?cmpid=fromhomecp

Washington authorities on Wednesday reduced the number of people missing from a community wiped out by a mudslide to 90, as the families and friends of those still unaccounted for begin to confront the reality that some may never be found.

The official death toll remains at 16, with an additional eight bodies located but not recovered, Snohomish County Emergency Management Director John Pennington said. Authorities said they expected more bodies to be found on Thursday.

The number of missing had been fluctuating — at one point reaching as high as 220 — but authorities were able to verify that 140 people reported missing had been located, Pennington said. That left 90 people missing, plus 35 others who may or may not have been in the area at the time of the slide.

The revised numbers come at the end of a rain-soaked fifth day of searching for survivors in the small community of Oso, some 55 miles southeast of Seattle. But as time passes and the death toll continues to rise, the chances grow increasingly dim of finding people alive amid the debris......(more)

[countryjake]

28. They just announced that there are now 25 confirmed deaths...

25 victims recovered from the devastation, so far.

[greatlaurel]

25. Thank you for the updates.

Please keep us posted.

[Warpy]

26. Clear cutting needs to be banned

Lines of trees along a slope need to be left in place to help anchor that slope until the newly planted saplings start to do the job.

Geologists had been warning about that particular mountainside for over 20 years. Clear cutting was done on schedule and new building permits continued to be issued below.

[uppityperson]

27. Yup. They have clearcut some really steep slopes and it is not safe.

[countryjake]

29. Word up here has just gone out, little "Snowy" Huestis has been found...

The body of the granddaughter of an Oso fireman has finally been located, one day after her grandma was pulled from under the debris.

4-month-old Sanoah Huestis was found this morning. She will be buried next to her grandmother.