The death toll from Saturday's devastating landslide in Washington is expected to rise to 24 after increasingly desperate rescuers slogging through debris recovered two bodies and believed they had located eight more, the local fire chief said on Tuesday.
The official death toll rose to 16 with the discovery of the additional victims as crews searched under drizzly skies for survivors amid fading hopes that anyone could still be plucked alive from the massive pile of mud-soaked rumble.
'Unfortunately we did not find any signs of life today, we didn't locate anybody alive, so that's the disappointing part,' local fire chief Travis Hots told a media briefing.
'It’s unimaginable, the conditions out there they’re dealing with,' Hots said.
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The devastation: This aerial photograph taken in the aftermath of the huge landslide that struck Oso in Washington state on Saturday morning shows how the hillside collapsed - while the red-dots in the diagram (inset right) represent the 30 + homes that have been leveled by the disaster
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Desperate search: A member of a rescue team looks underneath a destroyed home in the debris field after the mudslide near Oso, Washington on Tuesday as a dog roams and sniffs through the debris field
Painstaking: Searchers slowly move through a field of debris following Tuesday's deadly landslide that left an estimated 24 people dead with dozens still missing
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Inch by inch: Searchers on water and land look through the debris left by the huge landslide that struck Oso, Washington on Saturday morning - decimating the sleepy forest community
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Everyone lending a hand: Joanne Varney and her husband Greg search for victims with dog Maddee, 7, in the debris field after the Oso, Washington landslide
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Quicksand: Rescuers user inflatable rafts to traverse the watery sludge and debris that has built up around the rubble caused by the huge landslide that hit Oso on Saturday
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Every means: A canine search and rescue team looks for victims in the debris field after the mudslide near Oso, Washington, USA, 25 March 2014
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Hit like a bulldozer: Houses and other structures are shown flooded by the backed-up Stillaguamish River up-river from the massive mudslide that killed at least 24 people on Saturday and left dozens missing
The grim discoveries came three days after the collapse of a rain-soaked hillside about 55 miles north of Seattle.
Searchers had warned they were likely to find more bodies in the debris field, which covered a neighborhood of 49 structures. Authorities believe at least 25 were full-time residences.
Authorities believe that the mudslide destroyed 35 homes, as well as 13 manufactured homes, including RVs, and at least one cabin.
As many as 176 people remained listed as missing three days after the slide on Saturday, tumbling over a river, across a state road and into a rural residential area where it swallowed dozens of homes near the town of Oso.
Officials said they were hoping that number would decline as some of those listed as missing may have been double-counted or were slow to alert family and officials of their whereabouts. Eight people were injured.
But the disaster already ranks as one of the deadliest landslides in recent U.S. history. In 2005, 10 people died when a hillside gave way and engulfed homes in La Conchita, California.
'We're all still hoping for that miracle but we are preparing for the other possibility,' Washington State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins said Tuesday afternoon.
And as the rain still fell on Tuesday night, about 200 people gathered in the cold at a park in Arlington to pray for the victims, friends and family of those lost.
'Hug each other. Wipe away each other's tears,' said Pastor Chad Blood with the Lifeway Foursquare Church in Arlington.
'People are just responding,' he said. 'When a need arises they just come and take care of it until we have to turn them away. I'm speechless at times, and so very proud of out community.'
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Human cost: Valene Comenout (left) and Anna Schoneker (right) hold candles on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at a candlelight vigil in Arlington, Washington, for the victims of a massive mudslide that struck the nearby community of Oso on Saturday
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Prayers: People gather Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at a candlelight vigil in Arlington, for the victims of a massive mudslide that struck the nearby community of Oso, Washington
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Sadness: Teresa Welter cries as she holds a candle Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at a candlelight vigil for the victims of a massive mudslide that struck Oso on Saturday
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Vigil: Sarah Halstead (right) comforts her daughter Allison at a candlelight vigil for the victims in Arlington, Washington on Tuesday
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The Community Connection board at the Darrington Community Center is lined with post it notes offering rooms, places to stay, and bags of those for those displaced by the massive mudslide that occured nearby on Washington Highway 530 on Saturday
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Collapsed: The hillside that fell through the town of Oso, Washington is seen from the other side of the river in this picture which illustrates the devastating power of the landslide
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Boat and a bible: Elaine Young holds a Bible that she pulled out of the debris field caused by a massive mudslide on Saturday
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Hope: A flag, put up by volunteers helping search the area, stands in the ruins of a home left at the end of a deadly mudslide from the now-barren hillside seen about a mile behind, on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, in Oso, Washington
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More than 100 homes were affected by the collapse of the hill and the overflowing river which now separates the town and covers one mile
Though authorities have said the chances were low of finding any more survivors in the cement-like mud blanketing the landscape, Hots said some 50 more searchers had been brought in to sift through the disaster zone in hopes of a miracle.
'This makes up over 200 responders that are here on site working very hard to locate victims and hopefully find somebody that is still alive. That is still our number-one priority out there,' he said.
Officials are compiling the list from calls from worried family members, friends and locals. Snohomish County Emergency Management Director John Pennington said the number of potential missing likely includes duplicate names as people phone in reports about the same person. Authorities are working through the list, being extra cautious before they make conclusions.
'What we're finding is these vehicles are twisted and torn up in pieces.'
'It's amazing the force and magnitude what this slide has done.'
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.
At one site in a square-mile zone of devastation that once contained a meandering river surrounded by rural homes, the landslide pushed a house onto the highway, leaving nothing intact but its cedar shake roof.
Operators of excavators with clawed buckets dug through the debris, and chaplains stood by to comfort searchers and families of the missing. Hots said dogs also were being used to identify potential buried bodies, which were dug out in some cases with bulldozers or other heavy equipment.
President Barack Obama, who was in Europe for a meeting with world leaders, signed an emergency declaration ordering U.S. government assistance to supplement state and local relief efforts, the White House said.
Speaking at The Hague, where he was attending a summit, Obama began a news conference on Tuesday by addressing the disaster in Washington state and asking Americans to 'send their thoughts and prayers' to those affected by the disaster.
'We hope for the best, but we recognize this is a tough situation,' he said.
The official death toll rose to 16 with the discovery of the additional victims as crews searched under drizzly skies for survivors amid fading hopes that anyone could still be plucked alive from the massive pile of mud-soaked rumble.
'Unfortunately we did not find any signs of life today, we didn't locate anybody alive, so that's the disappointing part,' local fire chief Travis Hots told a media briefing.
'It’s unimaginable, the conditions out there they’re dealing with,' Hots said.
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The devastation: This aerial photograph taken in the aftermath of the huge landslide that struck Oso in Washington state on Saturday morning shows how the hillside collapsed - while the red-dots in the diagram (inset right) represent the 30 + homes that have been leveled by the disaster
+50
Desperate search: A member of a rescue team looks underneath a destroyed home in the debris field after the mudslide near Oso, Washington on Tuesday as a dog roams and sniffs through the debris field
Painstaking: Searchers slowly move through a field of debris following Tuesday's deadly landslide that left an estimated 24 people dead with dozens still missing
+50
Inch by inch: Searchers on water and land look through the debris left by the huge landslide that struck Oso, Washington on Saturday morning - decimating the sleepy forest community
+50
Everyone lending a hand: Joanne Varney and her husband Greg search for victims with dog Maddee, 7, in the debris field after the Oso, Washington landslide
+50
Quicksand: Rescuers user inflatable rafts to traverse the watery sludge and debris that has built up around the rubble caused by the huge landslide that hit Oso on Saturday
+50
Every means: A canine search and rescue team looks for victims in the debris field after the mudslide near Oso, Washington, USA, 25 March 2014
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Hit like a bulldozer: Houses and other structures are shown flooded by the backed-up Stillaguamish River up-river from the massive mudslide that killed at least 24 people on Saturday and left dozens missing
The grim discoveries came three days after the collapse of a rain-soaked hillside about 55 miles north of Seattle.
Searchers had warned they were likely to find more bodies in the debris field, which covered a neighborhood of 49 structures. Authorities believe at least 25 were full-time residences.
Authorities believe that the mudslide destroyed 35 homes, as well as 13 manufactured homes, including RVs, and at least one cabin.
As many as 176 people remained listed as missing three days after the slide on Saturday, tumbling over a river, across a state road and into a rural residential area where it swallowed dozens of homes near the town of Oso.
Officials said they were hoping that number would decline as some of those listed as missing may have been double-counted or were slow to alert family and officials of their whereabouts. Eight people were injured.
But the disaster already ranks as one of the deadliest landslides in recent U.S. history. In 2005, 10 people died when a hillside gave way and engulfed homes in La Conchita, California.
'We're all still hoping for that miracle but we are preparing for the other possibility,' Washington State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins said Tuesday afternoon.
And as the rain still fell on Tuesday night, about 200 people gathered in the cold at a park in Arlington to pray for the victims, friends and family of those lost.
'Hug each other. Wipe away each other's tears,' said Pastor Chad Blood with the Lifeway Foursquare Church in Arlington.
'People are just responding,' he said. 'When a need arises they just come and take care of it until we have to turn them away. I'm speechless at times, and so very proud of out community.'
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Human cost: Valene Comenout (left) and Anna Schoneker (right) hold candles on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at a candlelight vigil in Arlington, Washington, for the victims of a massive mudslide that struck the nearby community of Oso on Saturday
+50
Prayers: People gather Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at a candlelight vigil in Arlington, for the victims of a massive mudslide that struck the nearby community of Oso, Washington
+50
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Sadness: Teresa Welter cries as she holds a candle Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at a candlelight vigil for the victims of a massive mudslide that struck Oso on Saturday
+50
Vigil: Sarah Halstead (right) comforts her daughter Allison at a candlelight vigil for the victims in Arlington, Washington on Tuesday
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The Community Connection board at the Darrington Community Center is lined with post it notes offering rooms, places to stay, and bags of those for those displaced by the massive mudslide that occured nearby on Washington Highway 530 on Saturday
+50
Collapsed: The hillside that fell through the town of Oso, Washington is seen from the other side of the river in this picture which illustrates the devastating power of the landslide
+50
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Boat and a bible: Elaine Young holds a Bible that she pulled out of the debris field caused by a massive mudslide on Saturday
+50
Hope: A flag, put up by volunteers helping search the area, stands in the ruins of a home left at the end of a deadly mudslide from the now-barren hillside seen about a mile behind, on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, in Oso, Washington
+50
More than 100 homes were affected by the collapse of the hill and the overflowing river which now separates the town and covers one mile
Though authorities have said the chances were low of finding any more survivors in the cement-like mud blanketing the landscape, Hots said some 50 more searchers had been brought in to sift through the disaster zone in hopes of a miracle.
'This makes up over 200 responders that are here on site working very hard to locate victims and hopefully find somebody that is still alive. That is still our number-one priority out there,' he said.
WHY IS THE NUMBER OF MISSING CHANGING SO MUCH?
Officials are compiling the list from calls from worried family members, friends and locals. Snohomish County Emergency Management Director John Pennington said the number of potential missing likely includes duplicate names as people phone in reports about the same person. Authorities are working through the list, being extra cautious before they make conclusions.
'What we're finding is these vehicles are twisted and torn up in pieces.'
'It's amazing the force and magnitude what this slide has done.'
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.
At one site in a square-mile zone of devastation that once contained a meandering river surrounded by rural homes, the landslide pushed a house onto the highway, leaving nothing intact but its cedar shake roof.
Operators of excavators with clawed buckets dug through the debris, and chaplains stood by to comfort searchers and families of the missing. Hots said dogs also were being used to identify potential buried bodies, which were dug out in some cases with bulldozers or other heavy equipment.
President Barack Obama, who was in Europe for a meeting with world leaders, signed an emergency declaration ordering U.S. government assistance to supplement state and local relief efforts, the White House said.
Speaking at The Hague, where he was attending a summit, Obama began a news conference on Tuesday by addressing the disaster in Washington state and asking Americans to 'send their thoughts and prayers' to those affected by the disaster.
'We hope for the best, but we recognize this is a tough situation,' he said.
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