People cry for help from underneath rubble after 3 die in Washington landslide

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http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/23/us/washington-landslide/

(CNN) -- At least 10 people are unaccounted for after a landslide north of Seattle that's already blamed for three deaths, a spokesman for Washington's governor said Sunday.

Rescuers dug desperately through the rubble left behind by Saturday's landslide in the town of Oso, hoping to find survivors who were crying for help underneath the debris. The landslide cut off another town and prompted an evacuation notice for fear of a potentially "catastrophic flood event," authorities said.

At least six houses were destroyed in the landslide and possibly 16 were damaged, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office reported. Seven adults and a 6-month-old boy were rescued and sent to local hospitals, deputies said. But David Postman, a spokesman for Gov. Jay Inslee, said the whereabouts of at least 10 people were unknown Sunday morning.

People were crying out for help from underneath debris early Sunday, said Capt. Brandon Asher of the City of Arlington fire department. Rescuers are trying to get through the wreckage to reach them, he said.

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8 dead and ?no signs of life? from Washington mudslide

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/24/8-dead-and-no-signs-life-washington-mudslide/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

Rescuers say the chances of pulling any more survivors from a massive mudslide on the banks of the Stillaguamish River in Washington state are slim to none.

At least eight are confirmed dead and seven are in the hospital ? including a 6-month-old baby who is still in critical condition, The Los Angeles Times reported. Another 18 are still missing.

Most of the surviving victims have ?crushing injuries,? said Elizabeth Hunter, with the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, in The Los Angeles Times. ?Basically, the people were swept away, pinned up against things, covered.?

Emergency responders said the missing aren?t likely to be discovered alive.

?I get a sense we?re going to have some hard news here,? Gov. Jay Inslee said at a news conference over the weekend.?

Statements from geologists and firefighters who combed the site on Sunday would seem to support the governor?s view.

?I?m disappointed to tell you, after searching a very large area of that

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Authorities: 108 People Unaccounted For In Deadly Mudslide

http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2014/03/24/massive-mudslide-kills-at-least-8-people/

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) ? There are 108 names on the list of people who?ve been reported missing or unaccounted for in the weekend mudslide in Washington state, authorities said Monday.

Snohomish County emergency management director John Pennington said that?s the consolidated list from various sources that authorities are working from, and it doesn?t mean there are that many injuries or fatalities.

?It?s a soft 108,? Pennington said at a news conference

Among the missing are construction workers coming into the neighborhood and people just driving by. Pennington added the slide occurred on a Saturday morning, when more people were likely to be home.

He said authorities are still holding out hoped but noted, ?We have not found anyone alive on this pile since Saturday.?

At least eight people were killed in the 1-square-mile slide that hit in a rural area about 55 miles northeast of Seattle.

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Number of people listed as missing in Washington state landslide rises to 176

http://news.yahoo.com/number-people-listed-missing-washington-state-landslide-rises-015952035--finance.html

ARLINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - The number of people listed as missing from a devastating Washington state landslide that has killed at least 14 people rose on Monday to 176 from 108, Snohomish County emergency management director John Pennington said.

"The 176 I believe very strongly is not going to be a number that we're going to see in fatalities, I think it's going to drop dramati

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PHOTOS: People reported missing in Snohomish County mudslide

http://www.kirotv.com/gallery/news/photos-people-reported-missing-snohomish-county-mu/gCJmJ/#4810095

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Authorities expect death toll to rise following massive Washington mudslide

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/03/25/2-killed-in-big-wash-mudslide-sheriff-office-says/?intcmp=latestnews

Emergency officials say they expect the death toll from a massive mudslide in rural Washington state to rise as volunteers and responders pick through rubble.

The mudslide, which struck the town of Oso on Saturday morning, has left 14 people dead and 176 missing, Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said Tuesday.

Hots said authorities offer their ?deepest sympathies and condolences to the families affected by this disaster.? He added that authorities believe the death toll will increase.

?We are expecting that number to go up throughout the day,? he said.

There are 156 people in the field looking for anyone who may be trapped under rubble, Hots said, but rain forecasted for Tuesday afternoon may hamper search efforts. A 50-member National Guard team is also en route to the area.

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Geologists warned about Washington landslide 15 years ago: Before and after shots clearly show the lethal geography that has worried experts since 1999 as DOZENS are feared dead

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2588991/Incredible-shots-sheer-devastation-caused-Washington-landslide-wiped-entire-community-left-14-dead.html

Landslide tore through Snohomish County 55 miles north of Seattle, Washington state, on Saturday at 11am
At least 14 dead, several others injured and 176 people are missing - including entire families
Fears that many students of Post Middle School in Arlington could be among the victims
Around 100 crews searching for survivors; teams using search dogs, sonar devices, hover craft, and air support
Several people critically injured, around 30 homes destroyed, debris blocked one-mile stretch of State Route 530
Geologists Daniel Miller and Lynne Rodgers Miller reveal they warned of 'potential for catastrophe' in 1999 report
But Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management told press conference: 'it was considered very safe'
Further rain over next few days expected to hamper rescue efforts

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The incredible moment Buddy the Labrador was found ALIVE among the rubble of his family's home after Washington mudslide

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2589076/The-incredible-moment-Buddy-dog-rubble-familys-destroyed-home-Washington-mudslide.html

The Kuntz family were out at a baseball game on Saturday and were shocked to return to find their home completely destroyed
They had left their dog Buddy and their cat inside the home - which had traveled around 100 feet down the mountain
When they returned the next day to see what they could salvage, they heard whimpering and found Buddy unscathed
It came as a moment of joy for the family, who lost an aunt in the slide

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Mudslide searchers press on with dogs, bare hands

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/officials-more-washington-mudslide-victims-found/2014/03/25/08c7c5c2-b47c-11e3-bab2-b9602293021d_story.html?wpisrc=al_national

ARLINGTON, Wash. ? With search and cadaver dogs leading the way, rescuers using small bulldozers and their bare hands pushed through sludge strewn with splintered homes and twisted cars to find 10 more bodies in the debris of a Washington state mudslide, authorities said.

Despite the grim discoveries as the search entered its fifth day Wednesday ? and the likelihood that more bodies will be found ? officials were still hoping to find survivors.

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Washington mudslide: Reports warned of hillside's 'catastrophic failure' (+video)

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2014/0326/Washington-mudslide-Reports-warned-of-hillside-s-catastrophic-failure-video

In the wake of the devastating mudslide that has claimed at least 16 lives and destroyed 30 homes in Washington's Snohomish County, questions have emerged about whether people should have been living in the shadow of a hillside known to be prone to slides.

Numerous reports dating back to the 1950s have warned that the hillside that collapsed on Saturday is subject to failure, The Seattle Times reported. Indeed, the very same portion of hillside outside Oso, Wash., has slid into the Stillaguamish River numerous times since the 1950s.

Most recently, a slide in January 2006 plugged the north fork of the river and carved a new channel that threatened homes. When geomorphologist Daniel Miller visited the area a few weeks later, he expected to see vacated homes, but instead found carpenters building new ones.

RECOMMENDED: The Oso, Washington mudslide   

?Frankly, I was shocked that the county permitted any building across from the river,? he told the Times. ?We?ve known that [the hill has] been failing?. It?s not unknown that this hazard exists."

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VIDEO: Helicopter rescues 4-year-old from Wash. mudslide

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/26/video-helicopter-rescues-4-year-old-boy-washington/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

ARLINGTON, Wash. ? Video from the Snohomish County Helicopter Rescue Team shows the rescue of a 4-year-old boy from the Oso mudslide.

When the slide hit their house Saturday, Jacob Spillers was home with his father, Billy Spillers and three siblings ? 13-year-old half-brother Jovon Mangual, 5-year-old Kaylee Spillers, and 2-year-old Brooke Spillers.

PHOTOS: Mudslide searchers press on with dogs, bare hands

His mother, Jonielle Spillers, was at her job as a nursing assistant.

The Seattle Times reports Jovon?s father, Jose Mangual, is an Army staff sergeant. He says the Spillers moved from Seattle to Oso about two years ago. Billy Spillers is a chief petty officer stationed at Naval Station Everett.

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Landslide survivor: 'I just kept digging and digging and digging'

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Landslide-survivor-I-just-kept-digging-and-digging-and-digging-252560411.html

DARRINGTON, Wash. -- Mac McPherson said it sounded like a tornado when the weekend landslide slammed into his house, killing his wife and wiping out his home.

The 78-year-old is now out of the hospital, but he said he won't have peace until he's allowed to return to the site where he lost everything.

McPherson and his wife, Linda, were sitting in their living room reading the paper when the world came crashing down.

"There's this horrendous noise and all the trees were going like this and the noise kept getting louder and louder and then the worst noise you ever heard occurred," McPherson said.

The couple's beloved family farm in Darrington was ripped apart. Beams, trees, rafters, stove pipes and mud trapped McPherson in his crushed mission chair.

"I kept yelling at Linda to dig," he said.

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Crews press on with search for Washington mudslide victims

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/03/29/crews-press-on-with-search-for-washington-mudslide-victims/?intcmp=latestnews

ARLINGTON, Wash. ?  Finding and identifying victims from one of the most lethal landslides in the nation's history could stretch on for a very long time, officials warned in describing the arduous work of extracting and trying to identify the human remains.

"It's a very, very slow process. It was miserable to begin with, and as you all know, it has rained heavily in the last few days, it's made the quicksand even worse," Snohomish County Executive Director Gary Haakenson said at a Friday evening briefing. "I cannot possibly tell you how long this will last, or when, or if they will find more bodies. We hope that we do, but right now there's no telling."

Crews may be finding more remains amid the destruction in the community of Oso northeast of Seattle, but Haakenson said the official death toll will remain at 17 until medical examiners can further complete their work.

Authorities have located at least eight other bodies in addition to the 17, and they previously said they expect the number of fatalities from the March 22 mudslide to rise substantially.

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Risk of slide "unforeseen"? Warnings go back decades.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023218573_mudslidewarningsxml.html

Since the 1950s, geological reports on the hill that buckled during the weekend in Snohomish County have included pessimistic analyses and the occasional dire prediction. But no language seems more prescient than what appears in a 1999 report filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, warning of ?the potential for a large catastrophic failure.?

That report was written by Daniel J. Miller and his wife, Lynne Rodgers Miller. When she saw the news of the mudslide Saturday, she knew right away where the land had given way. Her husband knew, too.

?We?ve known it would happen at some point,? he told The Seattle Times on Monday. ?We just didn?t know when.?

Daniel Miller, a geomorph?ologist, also documented the hill?s landslide conditions in a report written in 1997 for the Washington Department of Ecology and the Tulalip Tribes. He knows the hill?s history, having collected reports and memos from the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and

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http://seattletimes.com/flatpages/local/interactivebeforeandafterthe530mudslide.html