Local relief effort
Staff and volunteers at this weekend’s Vancouver Farmers Market will be raising money for disaster relief efforts in Oso.
The market will give all proceeds from parking lot donations to the Mt. Rainier chapter of the American Red Cross, which is organizing shelter, food and basic health services for the communities near Oso.
More information on the relief efforts is available at:
http://www.redcross.org/news/article/Red-Cross-Responds-to-Washington-Mudslide.
OLYMPIA (AP) — Gov. Jay Inslee is asking for an expansion of a federal emergency declaration the state received earlier this week in response to a devastating mudslide that has killed at least two dozen people and left many missing.
Local relief effort
Staff and volunteers at this weekend's Vancouver Farmers Market will be raising money for disaster relief efforts in Oso.
The market will give all proceeds from parking lot donations to the Mt. Rainier chapter of the American Red Cross, which is organizing shelter, food and basic health services for the communities near Oso.
More information on the relief efforts is available at:
http://www.redcross.org/news/article/Red-Cross-Responds-to-Washington-Mudslide.
Inslee issued the request Thursday for additional help that would come from an expanded declaration, including helping local and state government agencies recover a portion of the estimated $4.5 million expected to be spent on emergency response, protective measures and debris removal related to Saturday’s mudslide in Oso. The current declaration that was received Monday provided federal disaster teams, other personnel and equipment.
State and Snohomish County officials are also assembling data needed in advance of the governor requesting a major disaster declaration from the president that would make programs and money available to people and businesses directly impacted by the slide. Inslee’s office says that request is expected in the next few days.
SEATTLE (AP) — Seismometers showed no earthquake triggered Saturday’s landslide at Oso, but seismic signals show there were two major slides during the event, about four minutes apart.
Information about the landslide readings was posted Wednesday on the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network blog by Kate Allstadt, a researcher at the University of Washington.
She writes the landslide was detected on 17 seismic stations up to 170 miles away. The closest was seven miles away.
They show the biggest slide started at 10:37 a.m. and lasted more than two minutes. This is the slide that hit the town of Oso. There was a second slide at 10:41 a.m. This may have been slumping onto the debris. They were followed by more than a dozen smaller slides for more than an hour.
DARRINGTON — There is only one way searchers are narrowing the list of 90 people still missing seven days after a landslide obliterated the mountain community of Oso: by digging.
There are no more phone calls being made out of the Snohomish County Emergency Operations Center to determine whether some on the list were away and just haven’t checked in since Saturday morning’s slide. No house checks in nearby neighborhoods to see if someone might have been missed.
OLYMPIA (AP) -- Gov. Jay Inslee is asking for an expansion of a federal emergency declaration the state received earlier this week in response to a devastating mudslide that has killed at least two dozen people and left many missing.
Inslee issued the request Thursday for additional help that would come from an expanded declaration, including helping local and state government agencies recover a portion of the estimated $4.5 million expected to be spent on emergency response, protective measures and debris removal related to Saturday's mudslide in Oso. The current declaration that was received Monday provided federal disaster teams, other personnel and equipment.
State and Snohomish County officials are also assembling data needed in advance of the governor requesting a major disaster declaration from the president that would make programs and money available to people and businesses directly impacted by the slide. Inslee's office says that request is expected in the next few days.
Authorities said Friday morning the death toll remained at 17, with additional bodies located but not counted, after preparing the public for a significant spike in reported fatalities.
Snohomish County District 21 Fire Chief Travis Hots said confirmation first must come from the medical examiner’s office, which is going through the slow process of identifying the bodies, and new information will be released Friday evening.
“We understand there has been confusion over the reported number of fatalities,” Hots said Thursday night in a statement. “This has been a challenging process for all of us.”
He continued to insist the searchers might still find survivors, though that belief appeared to be waning.
“I want to brace everybody that the chance is very slim,” Hots said. “But we haven’t given up.”
The possibility that dozens more people could be buried in the debris pile besides the 26 bodies already found has the potential to place Oso, with a total population of about 180, among the worst tragedies in Washington state history.
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens killed 57 people, and a 1910 avalanche near Stevens Pass swept away two trains and 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.”
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. A group of people with the county emergency operations center is now making calls to eliminate that more-speculative list, said Marybeth O’Leary, a spokeswoman for the emergency operations center.
“They are names that are not complete names,” she said. “They’re things like, ‘I work with a guy named Bill. He didn’t show up to work today.”‘
The governor has asked for more federal assistance, saying $4.5 million was expected to be spent on the response to the mudslide. Inslee’s request was to expand Monday’s federal emergency declaration that provided response teams and equipment.
Rain fell on the searchers Thursday, but the water levels on the eastern side of the slide area receded and uncovered flattened homes and crushed cars that previously had been inaccessible. An inch more was in the forecast for Friday.
SEATTLE (AP) -- Seismometers showed no earthquake triggered Saturday's landslide at Oso, but seismic signals show there were two major slides during the event, about four minutes apart.
Information about the landslide readings was posted Wednesday on the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network blog by Kate Allstadt, a researcher at the University of Washington.
She writes the landslide was detected on 17 seismic stations up to 170 miles away. The closest was seven miles away.
They show the biggest slide started at 10:37 a.m. and lasted more than two minutes. This is the slide that hit the town of Oso. There was a second slide at 10:41 a.m. This may have been slumping onto the debris. They were followed by more than a dozen smaller slides for more than an hour.
Boats searched the area with dogs 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 had discovered anybody inside.
The searchers walked on plywood pathways to keep from sinking into the sucking slurry. The moisture made the already treacherous surface even more unstable for workers exhausted after days of searching.
“If you could imagine houses, trees and a bunch of mud put in a blender, run for a bit and dumped back on the ground, that’s what it looks like,” said Washington National Guard Master Sgt. Chris Martin.
It’s not only the people who are showing signs of strain.
The dogs leading searchers to possible human remains can sense stress, incident spokesman Bob Calkins said. They also can become bored by the repetition, and their handlers must take them away from the work area for a time, he said
“The real key is for the handlers to stay positive, because stress on the part of the handlers goes right down the leash to the dogs,” Calkins said.
The county 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.
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.
