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 Hundreds of search-and-recovery workers have redoubled efforts
since Monday to make the most of a three-day dry spell and receding
waters after a week of heavy downpours that turned the disaster site
in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains into a virtual swamp.
The official death toll rose to 29, based on victims' remains
received by coroners, from 28 on Tuesday, the Snohomish County
Medical Examiner's office said. Thirteen people were listed as
missing, down from 22 a day earlier, said incident command
spokeswoman Sheri Badger.
On March 22, a rain-soaked hillside collapsed without warning above
the north fork of Stillaguamish River, unleashing a torrent of mud
that roared over the river and across state Highway 530, engulfing
some three dozen homes on the outskirts of the town of Oso.
"This is a community that they lost everything," said local fire
department Lieutenant Richard Burke, an onsite spokesman for the
recovery operation. "They don't get to come back and look at
pictures. They don't get to come back and drive down their street."
The mudslide also clogged the Stillaguamish River, which then cut a
slow-moving channel through the mud and debris, allowing floodwaters
in the area to drain as rains abated.
Search teams were hurrying to make more progress ahead of several
days of rain forecast to begin on Thursday, Burke said.
"The rain is going to change the dynamic about what happens out
here," he said.
As well as making the ground surface more soggy and difficult to
navigate, heavy rains increase the risk of further slides, flash
flooding and greater exposure to toxic chemicals mixed in with the
soil and water.
Burke said it was inevitable that some contaminants would seep out
of the site and downstream into the river.
SNOWMELT
Search efforts in the weeks ahead could be further hampered by
runoff from melting snow in the Cascades that is expected to pour
through the narrow, newly created stream channel along the
Stillaguamish River, possibly flooding the mud-pile site.
Sections of the slide area, already under 25 feet of water and
believed to contain more human remains, could be submerged by more
than 100 feet of water within three to four weeks without a wider
channel to divert the partially dammed river, said Mike Asher, an
area fire chief acting as the head of operations for the east side
of the disaster zone.
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"There's a lot of snow left on the mountains surrounding the
valley," Asher said. "We're going to start facing runoff issues from
that in the very near future."
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was working on a plan to dig a
river channel, likely to be accompanied by levies, to keep the
muddy, contaminated disaster site cordoned off, Asher said.
If the diversion goes wrong, the river could flow west down Highway
530, flooding additional stretches of the road and homes alongside
it, he said.
No sign of life has been detected among the missing since the day of
the slide, when eight injured people were rescued.
Authorities say that accounting for the number of dead has been
complicated by the fact that the bodies are not always found intact.
They acknowledge that some victims might be forever entombed under
the massive pile of mud and rubble.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday approved the state's request for
a major disaster declaration for the slide, making federal relief
assistance available to individuals, households and businesses
impacted by the tragedy, said Governor Jay Inslee.
Twenty-six of those killed in the mudslide have been identified, and
authorities are still working to identify the three remaining
confirmed fatalities, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office
said in a statement.
(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Cynthia Johnston and Chris Gallagher)
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