SEATTLE (AP) — After several mostly dry, clear days that allowed recovery workers to find more bodies in the Oso landslide, rain is forecast to return to Western Washington by the end of the week.
The National Weather Service says rain will begin on the coast Thursday and spread to the Cascades by Friday. A chance of showers continues through the weekend.
Forecasters say the dry weather the past couple of days will allow the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River to gradually fall, but rain could cause it to rise again in the slide area. Emergency responders have also said they’re concerned about melting mountain snow causing the river to rise in warming spring weather.
ARLINGTON — It is a grim step forward in the search for human remains at a mudslide that crushed a rural Washington community, but an important one: floodwaters at the site are receding, allowing crews to expand their search and yielding more human remains in areas that previously couldn’t be reached. The views presented Tuesday on a media tour were chilling: shredded homes and twisted cars.
SEATTLE (AP) -- After several mostly dry, clear days that allowed recovery workers to find more bodies in the Oso landslide, rain is forecast to return to Western Washington by the end of the week.
The National Weather Service says rain will begin on the coast Thursday and spread to the Cascades by Friday. A chance of showers continues through the weekend.
Forecasters say the dry weather the past couple of days will allow the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River to gradually fall, but rain could cause it to rise again in the slide area. Emergency responders have also said they're concerned about melting mountain snow causing the river to rise in warming spring weather.
More than 10 days after a large section of a rain-soaked hill crashed down on a neighborhood in the small community of Oso, teams with cadaver dogs are still sifting through debris and soil to determine exactly how many people died in the March 22 mudslide.
The mudslide partially dammed up the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, causing water to pool. Heavy rain last week added to the flooding. But early this week, the weather was dry and sunny — at least for a few days — allowing more crews to switch from water pumping to searching.
“A lot of logjam areas, that’s where we’re finding human remains,” search effort division supervisor Steve Harris said on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service forecast rain to return Thursday and Friday with a chance of showers through the weekend. Any rain complicates the job of workers in the muck and increases the risk of flooding.
Here are some facts and observations in one of the worst natural disasters to hit Washington state in this century:
o THE DEAD:
Officials have so far confirmed the deaths of 29 people, although only 22 have been officially identified in information released Wednesday morning by the Snohomish County medical examiner’s office. They range in age from 4-month-old Sonoah Heustis to 71-year-old Lewis F. Vandenburg. A total of 20 people are missing. They range in age from 2-year-old Brooke Sillers to Bonnie J. Gullikson, 91. Some of the missing and dead are related.
o THE MUDSLIDE SITE:
From a vantage point about a mile from the collapsed hillside, the magnitude of the slide is chilling, even if only a part of it can be seen. Where there was a state highway, there’s now a bed of mud and debris as much as 80 feet deep in some spots. There are few signs that a community existed here, replaced now by a field of debris of hundreds of acres. Heavy machinery is dwarfed by the mounds of mud. Crews wearing bright safety clothing trek carefully on paths made of plywood or through deep mud, using poles to assure their footing. Piles of downed trees and branches dot the brown mud field. What were houses, they’re now shredded remains. Cars were pancaked and twisted.
“The mountain didn’t slide like an avalanche that starts at the top and slides down. It actually blew out at the bottom. And all of that energy, because of the weight of top on it, blew across the river and brought all that water and material in it,” said Lt. Richard Burke, a firefighter and incident spokesman.
The valley then channeled the slide like a bowl.
He added: “Like a big soup bowl, it kind of sloshed up the bank and came back down.”
Nothing has yet been removed from the field. The debris is contaminated with remains of septic tanks and other “contaminants” found in cars and garages. Crews have begun piling up trees and house items in different sections, Burke added.
Said Harris: “It’s very likely it (a lot of the stuff) won’t be recovered. It’s just buried there.”
o THE SEARCH FOR HUMAN REMAINS:
Crews are being careful in their search for human remains. Harris said boats with sonar are among the pieces of equipment put to use. “Everything moved so much across the landscape, where we find logs and debris is where we’re going to find (remains).”
The weather helped Tuesday. It was sunny and dry, a stark contrast to the first few days of the recovery operations when a significant percentage of rescue crew members had to focus on de-flooding the area. There were 270 tactical personnel and volunteers present.
“We’ve been able to channel the water. We got less folks controlling the water and more folks with their hands on the ground. And that’s what we need,” said Burke.
The search is painstaking. In expanding their area, crews are using a grid system. But despite the progress, there are parts of the debris field that have not been examined because they are not yet stable.
The rain, though, is forecast to come back. As much as 3 inches of rain are expected to fall between Thursday and Sunday.
o FINANCIAL COSTS:
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says the mudslide caused about $10 million in damage to homes destroyed in the slide area and their contents. He estimates further costs of $32.1 million for search and recovery efforts, and to remove all the debris. But he says the costs could go higher.
o HOW LONG WILL THE SEARCH LAST?
Harris said: “From what I’ve seen, it’s going to take a long time.”
