Officials said they have received 108 reports of people missing as
rescuers continue to search the debris from a mile-wide mudslide in
Snohomish County.
Officials at the massive mudslide in Snohomish County said this
morning they have reports of 108 missing and unaccounted-for individuals
as a result of the disaster.
John Pennington, who heads the county’s Department of Emergency
Management, quickly added that the reports are vague and insists the
number of victims will not be nearly that large. He called 108 “a soft
number.”
Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said “the situation is very grim.”
“We are still holding out hope we are going to find people alive. We are still in a rescue mode,” Hots added.
Rescuers today will use aircraft, four search dogs and technical
teams to “probe the ground.” Searchers going through debris have been
sinking in the mud, which is 20 feet or more deep in some areas.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, speaking at the same Arlington news conference
as Hots and Pennington, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) and other federal agencies are ready to assist as well.
Going into detail about the slide site, near Oso, Pennington said
there are 59 vacant lots in the slide area, and another 49 lots had some
sort of structure — meaning a house, a cabin or some type of possible
dwelling. Of all of the structures, 25 were likely occupied full-time.
Pennington was asked about reports that some youths had been at a
slumber party in a home at the slide area. He said he hadn’t heard
anything about that.
He also said he didn’t know about reports that there had been logging on the slope.
“The area was mitigated very heavily. It was considered very safe,”
he said. “This was a completely unforeseen slide. This came out of
nowhere.”
Pennington said that because the slide happened on a Saturday, more people likely were at home, not at work.
Pennington asked anyone with information about possible victims to call 425-388-5088.
The massive slide is now reported at 15 million cubic yards of mud
and debris, said Steve Thompson, the county’s public works director. The
mudslide came down from a hillside above the North Fork of the
Stillaguamish River, crossed over it, plowed through homes and other
structures and onto Highway 530 about 11 a.m. Saturday, flattening
everything in its path.
He said the county isn’t moving any heavy equipment to the site at this point, not wanting to endanger the crews.
Marcus Deyering, spokesman for the Northwest Management Incident
Team, said crews using heavy-duty lights spent the night searching the
area “where it was safe to search.”
The names of the confirmed dead or the missing have not been released
by officials, although some survivors or the families of the missing
have talked to the media and provided names.
Officials at this morning’s news conference looked tired and weary as
they spoke to reporters outside the Arlington Police Department.
“This is a large-scale disaster,” said Pennington.
A large section of the river, which was covered by the slide, is stabilizing, said Thompson, the county public works director.
“Mother Nature is doing a good job of re-carving that (river)
channel,” he said, and downstream ”the river is getting back to
“semi-normal levels.”
With no positive news forthcoming, relatives of the missing crowded
into the Darrington Community Center Sunday looking for answers.
Relatives handed photos of missing loved ones to rescue workers in hopes they might turn up unconscious at a hospital.
Those reportedly missing ranged from Oso-area homeowners to repairmen
on work assignments and a group of girls at a slumber party.
Ron Thompson, whose home was destroyed, stopped by the evacuation
shelter at Post Middle School in Arlington to find out if his friends
turned up alive. “We lost a lot of good kids. I don’t know what else to
tell you. It hurts,” he said before driving away.
A 4-month-old baby and her grandmother were also among the missing.
The baby, Sanoah Huestis, lived with her grandparents, Christina and
Seth Jefferds. Seth Jefferds, a volunteer firefighter, was not home at
the time of the slide and arrived to find his house flattened and his
wife and granddaughter missing, said his brother-in-law, Dale Petersen.
“He said it was just like a bulldozer ran over the house,’’ Petersen said.
Although the names of the people killed were not officially released,
one is former Darrington librarian and School Board member Linda
McPherson, 69, according to Pete Selvig, a member of the Darrington
emergency-response team and a retired U.S. Forest Service employee.
McPherson’s husband, Gary “Mac” McPherson, was also injured. His condition was not immediately known.
The couple’s house and that of their niece and nephew next door were
both destroyed, Selvig said. The younger couple were not at home, but
their dog was trapped in the debris, he said.
Rescuers tried to get to the dog after hearing whimpering Saturday
night, but had to give up because the mud and debris were moving, Selvig
said.
McPherson was branch manager of the Darrington library and served for
about 15 years on the School Board, said Selvig, who served with her.
He said her approach to the business and challenges of the small
rural school district was professional and methodical. She was part of a
Darrington contingent that lobbied the state Legislature for funding to
rebuild the district’s three aging schools. “Her name is on the plaque
on the new elementary,” Selvig said.
Seven people injured in the slide were being treated at area hospitals Sunday.
At Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, a 6-month-old baby boy and
an 81-year-old man were in critical condition in the intensive-care unit
today. A 37-year-old man and a 58-year-old man were in serious
condition. A 25-year-old woman was in satisfactory condition.
At Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington, one woman was in
satisfactory condition. Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon reported
that a 68-year-old man was in stable condition.
Witnesses described a frantic scene when the slide hit Saturday morning.
Neighbors rushed to retrieve a mud-covered baby within moments, said
an Arlington woman who was driving by when the catastrophe occurred.
“We thought it was a car accident,” said Sierra Sansaver, of
Arlington, who said she was driving to Darrington to find the road was
blocked by mud. “Then you realize there’s a house in the middle of the
road.”
“We heard screaming from a house 100 yards from us. A whole bunch of
men went in there and pulled out a 6-month-old baby,” Sansaver said.
Firefighters also were arriving, she said.
“There was mud, household items everywhere, people screaming, crying, running into the rubbish.”
“Everybody was covered in mud. A lady next door who saw what
happened, she was giving them blankets to hold the baby in. They got in a
car, and left,” said Sansaver.
The infant at Harborview matched that scenario.
In Darrington, a search-and-rescue team of about 20 people was
advised Sunday morning to mark dead bodies if they saw any and keep
looking for survivors.
Some workers emerged from the meeting bleary-eyed and dispirited.
One volunteer firefighter who had stopped working around 11:30 p.m.
Saturday night said many tragic stories have yet to be told. He watched
one rescuer find his own front door, but nothing else — not his home,
his wife or his child.
They’re in the “missing” category along with many it is feared will eventually be listed as dead.
“It’s much worse than everyone’s been saying,” said the firefighter,
who did not want to be named. “The slide is about a mile wide. Entire
neighborhoods are just gone. When the slide hit the river, it was like a
tsunami.”
