|
 The 67-year-old retiree, who fears the home she bought near the
tiny town of Oso some 15 years ago was among the dozens swept away,
conjured images of her neighbors buried in the muck.
"Right here is the firefighter whose wife and baby granddaughter are
missing," Hargrave told Reuters as she pointed to houses now swept
away by the cascading mud.
Hargrave's community in this rural stretch of Washington state is
bracing for a higher death toll as up to 176 people remain missing,
and emergency officials have expressed doubts about finding any more
survivors.
Pete Bellomo said he feared his daughter, Shelley, and her longtime
partner, Jerry, would not be found alive.
"No, no, I don't think there's any chance of that ... but I haven't
been informed of anything yet," Bellomo told the Seattle Times
newspaper.
The slide tore through an area near Oso, one of a number of small
communities dotting a stretch of two-lane highway along with farm
stands, gas stations and craggy views of the Cascade Range.
Fisherman ply the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River for
steelhead and logging trucks run east toward Darrington.
TREACHEROUS CONDITIONS
A crude dam of mud and rubble dumped into the river by the slide was
building up in the area along State Route 530, about 55 miles
northeast of Seattle.
President Barack Obama has signed an emergency declaration ordering
U.S. government help to supplement state and local relief efforts
after the mudslide and flooding.
Several dozen homes were believed to have sustained extensive damage
in the slide, officials said. More than 100 properties were hit by
the cascading earth, 49 of which had a house, cabin or mobile home
on them. At least 25 of those homes were believed to have been
occupied all year-round.
[to top of second column] |
"Family members are grieving, trying to focus on finding missing
loved ones or working through the process of rebuilding what was
lost," Washington state Governor Jay Inslee said.
There were more than 100 rescuers on the ground during the day on
Monday, some with dogs, others using earth-moving equipment.
Aircraft were also used to scan the debris.
The rescue operation was often treacherous, with quicksand-like
conditions forcing workers to suspend their efforts late on Sunday.
Some had to be dragged to safety from the thick mud.
No survivors have been pulled out since Saturday.
On Monday, an elderly couple stood across from the police department
building in Arlington, about 10 miles southwest of the disaster
site, waiting for an update on the search effort.
The couple, who declined to give their names, were hoping for some
word of their daughter, whose house had been directly in the path of
the avalanche.
The announcement was postponed. They walked away somberly.
(Writing by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle;
editing by Gareth Jones)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
