Associated Press DARRINGTON, Wash. (AP) - Weary rescuers in hip waders
pressed through rain and their own exhaustion Thursday, searching for
more bodies and perhaps a miracle atop the pile of filth and debris
that laid waste to a Washington town and killed at least 26 people.
Rescue and cadaver dogs occasionally led crews to a wrecked car or the
ruins of a house containing a body. Teams then began removing the
corpse, ignoring the muck that clogged their tools. As the victim was
taken away, silence fell over the site.
The main goal now is to find more bodies and winnow the list of the 90
people who are still missing in the Saturday mudslide that buried the
community of Oso, located about 55 miles northeast of Seattle.
The official death toll rose to 17 late Thursday as the Snohomish
County medical examiner's office announced it had received the body of
an infant recovered earlier in the day.
Authorities have acknowledged at least nine additional bodies have
been located, but they warned the community a higher toll would be
announced Friday morning.
"We understand there has been confusion over the reported number of
fatalities," Snohomish County District 21 Fire Chief Travis Hots said
Thursday night in a statement accompanying the increased official
toll. "This has been a challenging process for all of us. The sadness
here is that we know this number will only increase."
Hots told a Thursday evening news briefing, "I fully expect that
number to go up here very, very soon."
At this point, narrowing the missing list means only one thing:
digging. There are no more phone calls to relatives or door-to-door
searches in hopes of locating people who just haven't checked in yet.
"At this time, we're not using any other type of methods other than
the search and rescue," said Casey Broom of the Snohomish County
emergency operations center.
Authorities have not released the names on the list of missing.
The more than 200 people working on the sludgy heap cling to hope that
at least one survivor is waiting for them in some pocket of the pile,
which is a square mile wide and 40 feet deep in places.
"My heart is telling me I'm not giving up yet," Hots said. "If we find
just one more person alive, it's all worth it to me."
After six days of searching, people perhaps aren't the only ones
showing signs of strain. Shane Barco's 3-year-old German shepherd has
found bodies and body parts. But, Barco said, the dog gets frustrated
when they don't bring anybody out alive.
Days of combing through what Barco called a blender of debris have
exhausted the dog, leading Barco to stop the search for a while.
The medical examiner's office has so far formally identified five
victims: Christina Jefferds, 45, of Arlington; Stephen A. Neal, 55, of
Darrington; Linda L. McPherson, 69, of Arlington; Kaylee B. Spillers,
5, of Arlington and William E. Welsh, 66, of Arlington.
Family members have confirmed a handful of other fatalities to news
organizations.
The body of Jefferds' granddaughter, 4-month-old Sanoah Huestis, was
found Thursday, said Dale Petersen, the girl's great-uncle.
Petersen said he arrived on the scene to help look for survivors to
find that work had stopped. A firefighter informed him and others that
the infant had been found, Petersen said.
He said the news provides closure for the family.
"We spent a lot of time together," he said of the baby girl.
Five people injured by the mudslide remain in a Seattle hospital,
including a 5-month-old boy in critical condition.
Besides the 90 missing, authorities are checking into 35 other people
who may or may not have been in the area at the time of the slide.
If dozens more bodies are found or left entombed in the debris, the
Oso mudslide could become one of Washington state's largest disasters.
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens killed 57 people, and a 1910
avalanche near Stevens Pass that struck two trains killed 96.
"We do know this could end up being the largest mass loss of
Washingtonians," Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday. "We're looking for
miracles to occur."
The searchers walk on plywood pathways to keep from sinking into the
sucking slurry. Their task was made more difficult Thursday by rain
that saturated the sand, silt and clay that make up the debris pile.
"You'll fall in waist-deep in some areas, knee-deep in some areas,"
said Washington National Guard Senior Airman Charlotte Gibson. "We
just keep pushing on, doing what we can as slowly and meticulously as
we can to make sure we don't miss anything."
Despite the new rain, water levels on the eastern side of the slide
area receded, uncovering flattened homes and crushed cars that
previously were inaccessible.
Boats with dogs on board searched the areas, and crews inserted
underwater cameras into vehicles to see if anybody was inside.
Excavators pulled one car out of the muck, but it was unclear if they
discovered anybody.
The moisture made the already treacherous surface even more unstable
and raised concern about the safety of collapsed hillside above them.
"Right now there (is) no risk of additional slides, but we're watching
the rain," said Steven Thomsen, the county's public works director.
"If it starts to move, we'll pull the crews out, but we don't see that
happening."
A University of Washington researcher now says there were two major
slides on Saturday morning.
The bigger slide that hit Oso lasted more than two minutes, and was
followed four minutes later by the second one, wrote Kate Allstadt on
the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network blog.
Seismic signals also recorded more than a dozen smaller slides that
continued for more than an hour.
"The big pulse was the main volume of material that broke down from
the slope and tumbled down toward that valley," said Bill Steele, the
seismology lab coordinator and spokesman for the seismic network.
"Another big pulse followed that, breaking loose another section of
unstable slope."
The seismic signals showed that the slide was not triggered by an
earthquake, Allstadt said.
M 4.5 - 20km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
PAGER - GREENShakeMap - VDYFI? - V
Time
2014-03-30 07:09:59 UTC-07:00
Location
36.132°N 97.638°W
Depth
3.8km
M 3.2 - 16km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
DYFI? - IV
Time
2014-03-30 05:49:42 UTC-07:00
Location
36.095°N 97.620°W
Depth
5.3km
M 2.7 - 17km E of Hennessey, Oklahoma
DYFI? - III
Time
2014-03-30 02:51:43 UTC-07:00
Location
36.090°N 97.701°W
Depth
5.0km
M 2.8 - 15km NNW of Crescent, Oklahoma
DYFI? - III
Time
2014-03-30 02:06:49 UTC-07:00
Location
36.092°N 97.636°W
Depth
5.3km
M 4.3 - 20km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
PAGER - GREENShakeMap - VDYFI? - IV
Time
2014-03-30 01:42:36 UTC-07:00
Location
36.140°N 97.616°W
Depth
5.0km
M 3.6 - 20km NNW of Crescent, Oklahoma
ShakeMap - IVDYFI? - III
Time
2014-03-30 01:10:31 UTC-07:00
Location
36.129°N 97.643°W
Depth
3.2km
M 3.5 - 21km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
ShakeMap - IVDYFI? - II
Time
2014-03-30 01:07:05 UTC-07:00
Location
36.142°N 97.618°W
Depth
6.0km
M 3.3 - 19km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
DYFI? - III
Time
2014-03-29 23:59:29 UTC-07:00
Location
36.122°N 97.635°W
Depth
5.2km
M 4.3 - 21km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
PAGER - GREENShakeMap - IVDYFI? - V
Time
2014-03-29 23:51:56 UTC-07:00
Location
36.142°N 97.592°W
Depth
5.0km
M 3.5 - 21km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
ShakeMap - IVDYFI? - IV
Time
2014-03-29 23:37:44 UTC-07:00
Location
36.145°N 97.618°W
Depth
4.3km
M 2.6 - 3km E of Choctaw, Oklahoma
DYFI? - III
Time
2014-03-29 22:49:29 UTC-07:00
Location
35.497°N 97.234°W
Depth
8.4km
M 3.5 - 21km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
ShakeMap - IVDYFI? - IV
Time
2014-03-29 20:55:33 UTC-07:00
Location
36.145°N 97.625°W
Depth
5.0km
S$
M 3.7 - 4km E of Choctaw, Oklahoma
ShakeMap - IVDYFI? - V
Time
2014-03-29 20:08:31 UTC-07:00
Location
35.498°N 97.224°W
Depth
6.1km
--
President of The United States
Guy Ralph Perea Sr President of The United States
Weatherdata Weatherdata http://groups.google.com/group/weatherdata1046am0426
USFMSC
http://www.cityfreq.com/ca/avalon/
QUALIFY QICP
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?call=EW4078
OCCUPS
http://www.occupationalinfo.org/02/025062010.html
NAS BLYND
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nas-blynd
http://lnk.ms/8d5gl aol
http://groups.google.com/group/united-states-of-american
http://twitter.com/ptusss Federal Communication Commission
http://columbiabroadcast.spaces.live.com/ Ambassador Chevy Chase;
Kevin Corcran; Jack Nickolas; Cher; Shirley Temple
Black; Liza Minnille; Ansari; Ernest Tascoe; Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
Agent Jodie Foster; Department of Veterans Affairs Director George H.W. Bush
Title 22 USCS section 1928 (b) The e-mail
transmission may contain legally privileged information that
is intended only for the individual or entity recipient, you are hereby,
notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or reliance upon the
contents of this E-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
E-mail transmission in error, please reply to the sender, so arrangements
can be made for proper delivery. Title 42
USCS section 192 etseq Margie Paxton Chief of Childrens Bureau
Director of The United States Department of Human Services; Defendant
Article IV General Provisions Section 2
(Supreme Law of The Land) The Constitution of The United States "Any thing
in The Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary Notwithstanding"
Contrary to Law (of an act or omission) illegal; https://twitter.com/ptusss
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.