Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Meanwhile back in amreica ....we mite have a 100 missing in mud slide

Enough of that plane flown by the religion of peace pilots>>>> here is link to a slide show of 64 pics - of the Washington mudslide pic 4 ,7 ,8 sums it up ...sad chit indeed.. http://seattletimes.com/html/photogalleries/localnews2023201892/1.html

I have a good bud that lives on the Skagit river in Concrete, hope those death tolls don't rise.

it was on the news tonite .... i'll be! the numbers of the pic's have changed

Washington state mudslide death toll climbs to 14 with up to 176 missing

Dayom.

Rescuers Monday found six more bodies in a milewide swath of mud and debris that plunged from a Snohomish County hillside, as reports of those still missing jumped to 176.

So far, 14 people have been confirmed dead after the massive mudslide came down from above the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, crossed over it, plowed through homes and onto Highway 530 about 11 a.m. Saturday.

Search conditions are dismal. Crews have at times been kept from the area out of fear more of the cliff above might crumble. And when they can look, �in areas it�s like quicksand. Sometimes it takes five minutes to walk 40 or 50 feet and get our equipment over these berms,� said Travis Hots, chief of Snohomish County Fire Districts 21 and 22.

The National Guard is expected to arrive early Tuesday to aid the search.

As the search progressed slowly, the names of missing people reported to authorities increased dramatically.

Sunday, there were reports of 18 people missing. Monday morning, John Pennington, who heads the county�s Department of Emergency Management, said they were sorting through a list of 108 reports, with obvious duplicates removed. By Monday evening, that number had reached 176.

Pennington said that sounds discouraging, but he emphasized that some reports are vague and it is likely there are several about the same person. He encouraged people to continue calling in with names, photos and descriptions of people who might have been in the mudslide�s path.

�Candidly, the 176 names ... I believe very strongly is not going to be a number that we�re going to see in fatalities. I believe it�s going to drop dramatically,� Pennington said. �But it doesn�t make the process any easier.�

Rescuers Monday used aircraft, hovercraft, heat-sensing equipment and dogs to look through mud that is 20 feet deep in places and contaminated by chemicals and bacteria. �It�s very tedious and slow-going,� Hots said.

They are working in areas where there are most likely to be survivors, such as in houses and cars.

�When we do find a void space, it�s difficult to search because buildings have been collapsed and crushed,� Hots said. He said the mud is so compressed in houses that it�s like trying to scrape out concrete.

Pennington said there are 59 vacant lots in the slide area, and 49 more lots had structures � meaning a house, a cabin or some type of possible dwelling. Of all the structures, 25 were likely occupied full-time.

Dayn Brunner, after fighting the urge to dig through the mudslide wreckage Sunday, gave in to the temptation Monday along with his sons, brothers, cousins and friends. His sister, Summer Raffo, 36 is missing somewhere in the mud. �I can�t stay at home not doing anything,� Brunner said.

He said officials told them they had to leave, but they refused. �They said just be careful and call us if you need us.�

Other family members and friends of the missing gathered in the nearby towns of Darrington and Arlington, waiting for news and talking about their loved ones. Often, they spoke in the past tense.

Nobody has been found alive in the debris since Saturday.

�Most of us in these communities believe that we will not find any individuals alive,� Pennington said Monday evening. �But I�m a man of faith and I believe in miracles.�

Still, he said, �we are moving toward a recovery operation� rather than a rescue.

Hope gone

Pete Bellomo, of Bellevue, spent the day in Arlington, trying to find out any information about his daughter, Shelley, and her longtime partner, Jerry Logan. He did not hold out hope they would be found alive.

�No, no, I don�t think there�s any chance of that ... but I haven�t been informed of anything yet,� he said.

Shelley Bellomo, 54, �loved living by that river,� where she could watch the bald eagles flying by, her father said.

�It was a beautiful location. I never thought [a mudslide] could fall all the way across 530,� he said.

Logan was �an all-around handyman� who helped one neighbor build a barn and installed a deck for another, Pete Bellomo said.

Also missing is 13-year-old Jovon Mangual, his half-sisters Kaylee Spillers, 5, and Brooke Spillers, 2, and his stepfather, Billy Spillers.

The children�s mother, Jonielle Spillers, a nursing assistant, and Jovon�s 4-year-old half-brother, Jacob Spillers, are alive.

The Spillers moved from Seattle to Oso about two years ago, said Jovon�s father, Jose Mangual, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Billy Spillers, a chief petty officer in the Navy, is stationed at the naval base in Everett and the family liked the property in Oso �because it was more countrylike and they liked the house,� Mangual said.

Billy Spillers and the children were apparently at home watching TV when the mudslide happened, according to Mangual, who said he spoke with Jacob about what happened. The boy said he was on the second floor of the house.

�Jacob told me he got out when nobody else was able to get out,� Mangual said.

Jonielle Spillers was working when she learned of the slide. Blocked from reaching home because of the slide, she called hospitals, which is how she found Jacob.

Thomas Durnell, 65, was at his Oso home when it was destroyed by the slide.

Deb Durnell, his wife, was working Saturday morning and is safe, according to her daughter, Pam Keller.

Carrie Milburn, a friend of the couple, said they moved there after marrying in 2010.

Seth and Christina Jefferds have lived in their house in Oso for years .

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 her 4-month-old granddaughter, Sanoah Huestis, missing, said his brother-in-law, Dale Petersen.

Sanoah Huestis lived with Christina and Seth Jefferds.

Sanoah is just �a very, very cute child,� said Seth�s father, Peter Jefferds.

He described Christina Jefferds as �very charismatic, loving. A great woman.�

Northwest Smile Design, a dental office in Marysville where Christina Jefferds worked, posted on its website Monday that she and Sanoah Huestis had died, calling her �a steadying and calming force in times of stress ... a true friend.�

Nichole Webb Rivera said she frantically called and texted her parents, her daughter and her daughter�s fiance when the massive hillside collapsed.

Rivera said her parents, Thom and Marcy Satterlee, lived in the center of the slide, and she doesn�t think they made it out. She said her 20-year-old daughter, Delaney Webb, and Webb�s fiance were visiting the older couple at the time.

Rivera lives in Houston but traveled to Washington after the slide. She said Monday after visiting the area: �We�ve lost four.�

Seven people injured in the slide were being treated at area hospitals Monday.

At Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, 22-week-old Duke Suddarth was in critical condition but improving. His mother, Amanda Skorjanc, 25, was in satisfactory condition, the hospital said Monday afternoon.

Three men, ages 81, 58 and 37, were all in serious condition there, though their names were not released.

A good friend of ours that lives down on the Coyle Peninsula is really worried about her brother and his wife as they live in the area at the center of the slide. They are among the people missing she said her brother's place is under thirty feet of mud and debris it doesn't look good for them. Their name is Sattley nothing been heard from then since the slide.

you would think that the news would at least mention it.

So sad. Such a rural area but it hit what looks looks like a cluster of homes. The photo with what looks like the ownership overlay made me sick!

No kidding. That's way more lives than were lost as a direct result of Tropical Storm Sandy.

The reason I mentioned it there is several here that live in the immediate area and they have some knowledge of their welfare.

I heard on the news this morning that they are hearing calls for help but are unable to get close enough to rescue them because the slide is so unstable.

Meanwhile, rampant speculation over that freaking airliner goes on...

Emergency officials said the death toll in a massive mudslide in rural Washington has risen to 24 with the discovery of ten more bodies Tuesday.

Two more fatalities were recovered Tuesday and another eight found but not yet recovered, in addition to the 14 deaths already reported, according to Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots.

The mudslide, which struck the town of Oso on Saturday morning, also resulted in as many as 176 missing person reports, but officials said they could not tell how many were duplicates.

Hots said earlier authorities offer their �deepest sympathies and condolences to the families affected by this disaster.�

There are 156 people in the field looking for anyone who may be trapped under rubble, Hots said, but rain forecast for Tuesday afternoon could hamper search efforts. A 50-member National Guard team is also en route to the area.

Earlier in the day, officials looking to narrow the number of people unaccounted for said the operation is now shifting from a rescue effort to a recovery mission.

"I never lose faith and a lot of the people in this community will never lose faith, but there's a realism element that's entered in,� John Pennington, Snohomish County's director of emergency management, said Tuesday on NBC�s �Today� show, according to Reuters. "We have responded as well as we can, and we will continue to do that, but ... we are turning that very delicate corner in the recovery operation.�

Emergency responders and volunteers resumed searches Tuesday, but so far have not been able to locate anyone who still may be trapped under the rubble.

A 22-week-old baby injured in the mudslide remained in critical condition Tuesday, Seattle�s Harborview Medical Center said. His mother was also among the injured.

Late Monday, authorities announced that the official death toll had increased to 14 after searchers discovered six more bodies in the rubble.

The main focus of the search operations has been to pin down the exact number of people unaccounted for after the disaster. Pennington told reporters late Monday that officials were working off a potential list of 176 people, but he stressed that authorities believed that included many duplicate names.

"I believe very strongly [176] is not a number we're going to see in fatalities," Pennington said. "I believe it's going to drop dramatically." However, other authorities said they have not been able to determine whether there were multiple calls about the same missing person.

The 1-square-mile mudslide struck Saturday morning. Authorities have described the search for additional survivors to be "grim" as crews battle uneven ground and rising waters. Monday�s search included specially trained dogs, firefighters, law enforcement, aircraft and search-and-rescue teams. Heavy equipment from the Washington State Department of Transportation helped to move trees, boulders and earth.

�Most of us in these communities do not believe we'll find anyone alive,� Pennington said Monday, but then added, "I'm a man of faith and I believe in miracles."

Authorities believe that the mudslide destroyed 35 homes, as well as 13 manufactured homes, including RVs, and at least one cabin. Part of the difficulty in determining the exact number of missing people comes from authorities not knowing how many of the homes, some of which are kept for vacationing visitors, were occupied at the time of the slide. Authorities also believe some nonresidents may have been working in the area, while some victims may have been passing through in their cars on nearby State Highway 530.

Another obstacle has been the chaotic nature of the debris field itself. In some places, the ground is covered by 15 feet of rubble.

"It's muddy in areas, it's like quicksand," said Hots. "One of the folks out there told me, 'Chief, sometimes it takes five minutes to walk 40 or 50 feet.'" Searchers are also running into gasoline and septic discharge and dealing with ground that geologists warn remains unstable. Authorities believe the slide was caused by ground made unstable by recent heavy rainfall.

Ed Hrivnak, who was co-piloting an aircraft that was first to arrive at the scene Saturday, said a lot of the houses weren't buried. When they got hit, "the houses exploded." He said cars were crushed into little pieces, their tires the only signs that they had been vehicles.

He said he saw people so thoroughly covered in mud that searchers could only spot them by the whites of their waving palms. His helicopter rescued eight people, including a 4-year-old boy, who was up to his knees in concrete-like compressed mud.

The mud was so sticky, the rescuers were worried about getting stuck so the helicopter hovered about a foot away and the crew chief tried to pull him out. "He was suctioned in that mud so much that his pants came off," Hrivnak said.

The boy was taken to a hospital and was reunited with his mom. Hrivnak said the boy's father and three siblings are still missing.

Friends and families immediately launched their own rescue missions.

Elaine Young and her husband, Don, picking their way through the devastation, heard tapping, a steady beat. They got closer and realized it was coming from their neighbors' buckled home.

Trapped in an air pocket, Gary "Mac" McPherson, 78, was banging away for help with a loose stick. The Youngs managed to pull him out, but family members said his wife, Linda McPherson, 69, a former librarian and school board member, did not survive.

Chainsaws buzzed as friends and families cut toppled houses open on Monday. Buddy, a large chocolate Labrador, was pulled muddy and cut from under the ruins Sunday after a house was searched. His owner has not been found.

Gail Moffett, a retired firefighter who lives in Oso and works at the hardware store in Arlington, said she knows about 25 people who are missing. Among them, Moffett said, were entire families, including people with young children.

Moffett said some of the people who are missing were working in the area Saturday morning.

"There's so much pain going on in the community right now," she said.

President Barack Obama Tuesday asked Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state as search operations continue. He said first responders have acted bravely and people have come forward to help fellow citizens.

Obama says he's spoken with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and signed an emergency declaration for the state, adding that his administration is in ongoing contact with state officials.

Evacuation shelters were set up at Post Middle School in Arlington and the Darrington Community Center.

OMGGGGGGG... that's a helleva mess. And you don't see anybody smiling... just grim looks on their faces. Small wonder, eh?

JEZZZZZZZ...

What a tragedy. Prayers sent from N.C.

Had to dig to find a reference on Fox News today. The plane was on page one though, of course.
link to story

It's a terrible event but the plane story goes on.

I can't imagine what it's like for searchers to hear cries for help a short distance away and not be able to get there to do something. They say the stuff is like quicksand, impossible to cross.

Death toll at 24, and sadly, after five days the list of missing people still numbers well over 100.

I saw on the news last night that the list of missing was 176 at that time. Likely they'll just have to designate the entire area as a cemetery because they'll never find them.