Tag: washington mudslide
Obama To Visit Site Of Deadly Washington State Landslide

Obama To Visit Site Of Deadly Washington State Landslide

By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times

SEATTLE — One month after the Washington state landslide that killed at least 34, President Barack Obama is planning to survey the destruction firsthand.

Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday that Obama will travel on April 22 to the site of the mammoth slide that closed State Route 530 and destroyed dozens of homes, prompting a major disaster declaration from the White House.

The president is scheduled to meet with families of the dead and missing, first responders and recovery workers, Inslee said.

“From the earliest days following the slide, the president has closely monitored events in the area and shown his concerns for the victims and their families,” Inslee said in a written statement announcing the visit. “He and his team have been important partners in the response effort, and I believe this visit will strengthen those ties as we face the tough work ahead.”

The death toll from the March 22 landslide continues to rise. On Tuesday, the Snohomish County medical examiner’s office said it had received a total of 34 victims, up from 33 a day earlier, and has positively identified 30 of them.

Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, both Democrats, expressed gratitude Tuesday for the president’s upcoming visit — and for the federal government’s support in the form of disaster assistance and an extension of the April 15 tax filing deadline for those affected by the slide.

“We are confident that President Obama will see what we have seen,” the senators wrote in a joint statement, “the tremendous resolve and determination of the people of Oso, Darrington and Arlington in the face of tragedy.”

Among the difficult issues facing Snohomish County and the small towns along the Stillaguamish River is whether it will be possible to rebuild the demolished town of Oso, which had a population of about 200 when the hillside came crashing down on it 2 weeks ago.

There are also questions surrounding how much longer searchers will continue to look for the remains of the 12 people still missing, who range in age from 2-year-old Brooke Spillers to 91-year-old Bonnie J. Gullikson, both of Arlington.

Photo via Marcus Yam/Seattle Times/MCT

Work On Berm To Begin To Help In Mudslide Search Effort

Work On Berm To Begin To Help In Mudslide Search Effort

By Sandi Doughton and Katherine Long, The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin work Monday on a berm to allow workers to pump river water out of a 260-acre area of the Washington state mudslide, making it safe to continue the search for the missing.

The area on the northeast side of the slide is covered by water that stands five to 10 feet deep, and “we haven’t been able to see what’s under the water there,” said Owen Carter, Snohomish County deputy public-works director and engineer, during a news conference Sunday evening.

13 people are still missing after the March 22 slide. Of the 30 bodies recovered so far, 29 have been identified.

On Sunday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson toured the site and pledged continued federal support.

“It is clear there is more work to do,” he said in a news conference at Paine Field in Everett, Wash. “I am here to tell the community and the state that the federal government is with you.”

Accompanied by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate, Johnson met with several first responders and emergency personnel, including some who were the first to arrive on the scene.

He also spoke with members of the aircrews who rescued 14 people immediately after the slide.

“The community has come together in a profound way,” Johnson said.

About 900 people are still involved in the search, including 350 National Guard members.

It will take Army Corps workers about a week to 10 days to construct the berm, which will be made of rock and embankment material. When it’s finished, or possibly earlier, workers will begin pumping water out of the area and back into the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River.

The berm will also help prevent rising river levels from flooding straight down the rest of Highway 530 toward Arlington, which could damage more homes, Doug Weber, chief of emergency management for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Seattle district said Saturday. Without the berm, it’s highly probable that flooding would occur farther down Highway 530, according to Mike Asher operations section chief for the state incident-command team in charge of the response effort.

Controlling flooding in the search area continues to be a problem. Rainfall overnight Saturday caused water levels to increase as much as a half-foot in some places, said Meg Matthews, a spokeswoman for the Snohomish County Joint Operation Center. She said warmer, drier weather is forecast for this week, which should help.

Elsewhere in the slide zone, hundreds of searchers are continuing to look for victims, “excavating layer by layer until they reach native soil,” Matthews said.

Fugate, of FEMA, called the recovery a team effort and underscored FEMA’s ongoing commitment. “We’re not going anywhere until this is done,” he said.

Johnson praised the recovery effort and the work of local volunteers, some of whom rushed immediately to the scene.

“I just wanted to convey my personal appreciation to the volunteers and let people know the federal government is here to assist,” he said.

Gov. Jay Inslee, who accompanied Johnson and Fugate, said federal assistance will be vital to rebuilding Highway 530.

“It’s important for the people of Darrington to know that highway will be restored,” he said. Some of the material being used to construct the berm will later be used in highway construction.

Johnson urged people affected by this slide to register with FEMA for assistance. “The sooner you register with FEMA the faster we can get help to you,” he said. FEMA is a branch of the Department of Homeland Security.

Matthews said the community is no longer in need of donations such as food or clothing, but monetary donations are still welcome. Information on where to donate is on the Snohomish County website, www.snohomishcountywa.gov.

Marcus Yam/Seattle Times/MCT

Hope For Mudslide Survivors ‘Almost Nonexistent’ As Search Continues

Hope For Mudslide Survivors ‘Almost Nonexistent’ As Search Continues

By Lornet Turnbull and Jennifer Sullivan, The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — The man often called upon to deliver heartbreaking news to families of mudslide victims says some relatives hold out hope that their loved ones might still be pulled out alive from the rubble.

But 12 days after a massive hillside gave way and engulfed a riverside community near Oso, Larry Nickey knows an inescapable reality awaits them.

“We are trying to be as honest as we can with the families as we talk to them each night about what we find, “ said Nickey, incident commander for an interagency team working at the mudslide site from the Arlington side. “We have prepared the families and some are holding out hope, but most likely there will not be any survivors and we want that message out there.”

Rescue crews have not found anyone alive amid the mud, splintered trees and crushed homes since the first hours after the March 22 slide. The official death toll stood at 29 on Wednesday, with 13 listing as missing.

“We will continue searching. But we know the probability of finding anyone alive is almost nonexistent,” he said.

Survivors and others impacted by the mudslide received some good news on Wednesday when President Barack Obama declared it a major disaster, opening up extensive help, ranging from money to pay for temporary housing, making essential home repairs, replacing household items and providing child care. It also includes up to 26 weeks of unemployment benefits for those who otherwise might not qualify.

Grants for temporary housing are capped at three months for homeowners; renters will get at least a month. The aid could be extended later by request.

In addition, low-cost loans of up to $200,000 from the Small Business Administration will be available for primary residences, and $40,000 for lost personal property. Small businesses can qualify for up to $2 million in loans.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also will provide counseling, help with income taxes and legal advice.

Those needing help can register online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362).

In addition, John Pennington, head of Snohomish County’s Office of Emergency Management, said two or three disaster-recovery centers will be set up around the county where people can seek assistance.

“I think my message is clear: Anyone impacted by this disaster really in any form up and down the 530 corridor, really should register with FEMA,” he said during a media briefing in Arlington. “If you don’t register for federal assistance, you can’t get federal assistance.”

Washington State University has offered to waive tuition for the coming academic year for any students affected by the Oso mudslide, and the University of Washington said it will also help with tuition costs.

WSU’s offer, extended by WSU President Elson Floyd in a letter to Darrington Mayor Dan Rankin, waives tuition for students whose permanent addresses are in Oso, Arlington or Darrington. The offer is good for the 2014-15 academic year.

WSU officials say they believe about 75 to 100 students could qualify for the waiver, including incoming freshmen and transfers.

WSU officials said they don’t yet know how many students would qualify. “These are very small communities, so we are not talking hundreds of students,” said spokeswoman Kathy Barnard in an email.

UW spokesman Norm Arkans said the UW will also help families affected by the slide, although the UW is not offering a blanket tuition waiver to Oso and Darrington students. Arkans said the university has emergency funds in place to help families affected by disasters, and that those who took a financial hit because of the slide should contact the UW’s financial-aid office.

Undergraduate, in-state tuition and fees for a year at WSU and the UW are about $12,000. Both universities said incoming freshmen would be included in the offer.

In the letter, Floyd also notes that WSU’s Snohomish County Extension office is helping with the evacuation and care of farm animals.

“Oso, Darrington and Snohomish County have been good neighbors to WSU,” Floyd wrote. “We will continue to build on that spirit through and beyond … this difficult time.”

Nickey, the incident commander, and his team have been at the mudslide site since last Thursday. They have responded to a host of other disasters across the country — wildfires, hurricanes, the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

He calls the tragedy that befell Oso “unprecedented.”

“We’ve never had a mudslide of this magnitude that has taken out that many homes and taken that many lives,” he said. “Nobody has ever done this (scale of rescue work) to my knowledge anywhere in the U.S.”

Searchers are trying to match human remains as well as cars, even household items like books, with the house they were in to determine the flow of the slide so they can better focus their search.

The cadaver-search dogs rescuers had been using to help find those remains are tired and are being spelled by a new group coming in from out of state. About 20 of them, he said, are set to arrive Thursday.

“We are looking for the deceased and those dogs are specially trained cadaver dogs with a good success ratio in helping to find human remains,” he said.

Remains that are recovered at the mudslide site on a daily basis are all sent to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office, where staff has been working long hours identifying the dead and determine cause of death.

“We’ve not seen anything of this magnitude,” Dennis Peterson, deputy director of the medical examiner’s office, said Wednesday. “This has overwhelmed us.”

Investigators, as well as extra staff from King, Pierce and Skagit counties, and the Washington National Guard’s mass-casualty unit, carefully tend to each body with respect and compassion, officials said.

Upon arrival at the office, each person is wheeled into a large tent set up outside the office. Each person is washed in warm water to remove mud, debris and possible chemicals and other hazardous materials, Peterson said.

All 29 victims identified by the office died of some sort of “blunt-force trauma,” officials said. Five additional sets of remains have not been identified.

Sheriff’s Detective Brad Walvatne said that of the 29 victims identified, nearly all were identified by dental or X-ray records and two were identified through DNA.

Sheriff’s detectives working closely with the medical examiner’s office initially investigated tips that 531 may have been missing in the slide. Pointing to a spreadsheet on a large screen, Walvatne pointed out that they pared 489 people from that list.

Pierce County sheriff’s Sgt. Ed Troyer, who is acting as a spokesman for the Medical Examiner’s Office, said Wednesday that of the five people not identified, one may be a challenge. All they know is that the person is a man who has had extensive dental work with gold fillings in his mouth.

The set of remains does not fit with the description on the missing persons list.

They can’t even identify his age range. Without possible family members to compare, DNA tests are useless. At this point, gold teeth are all they have to go on.

“It’s a huge puzzle. You don’t want to get anything wrong,” Troyer said.

Marcus Yam/Seattle Times/MCT

U.S. Landslide Toll Rises To 29

U.S. Landslide Toll Rises To 29

Los Angeles (AFP) – The confirmed death toll from a huge U.S. landslide rose to 29 Wednesday including three children, officials said a week and a half after the disaster in Washington state.

Twenty people are still believed missing after a wall of mud and debris crashed down on the town of Oso on March 22.

Of the 29 bodies recovered, only 22 have been identified, said the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The dead include a four-month-old baby girl, as well as a six-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl, it said.

Dozens of dwellings in the rural town located 60 miles from Seattle were wiped out in the landslide, which also destroyed part of a highway.

Photo via Lindsey Wasson/Seattle Times/MCT