Oso mudslide: 14 dead so far

[Balog]

http://www.king5.com/news/breaker1/Oso-darrington-landslide-Tuesday-252233391.html

176 reported missing, although many of those are likely duplicates.

The state geologist says the 1-square-mile mudslide is "one of the largest landslides he's seen." It's 1,500 feet long, 600 feet tall, 4,400 feet wide. The debris is about 30-40 feet deep.

"Our crews are up against an enormous challenge, it's like quicksand out there," Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said from a makeshift podium outside the Arlington, Wash., police station Monday night.
Crews have to move extremely carefully as they work. "Some of my guys could only go 50 feet in five minutes," because of the debris and danger of being sucked into the mud.

This should give some perspective on the scope of the problem they're dealing with.



This far out from the event (it happened Saturday) there's less and less chance that they'll find survivors, just more bodies. May God have mercy on those poor people.

[Balog]

http://mynorthwest.com/129/2479544/Photos-of-the-mudslide-and-search-efforts?nid=129&sid=2479544&pid=0&on=

[Tallpine]

Very sad 

That's basically "just over the hill" from Granite Falls, where I went horseback riding one weekend while I was working in Everett.

[MillCreek]

A couple of weeks ago, when we had the sunny weather on the weekend, I was in that very area riding my mountain bike on the Whitehorse trail.  I have been on that road many times driving, biking or motorcycling.  That is a great area up there for outdoor recreation.

[Brad Johnson]

Judging by hillside contours, slides and slumps are not uncommon.

Brad

[Azrael256]

Judging by hillside contours, slides and slumps are not uncommon.

Brad

Yeah, I'm no geologist, and I'm playing Captain Hindsight here, but wasn't this expected?  It looks like the whole area was created by a landslide to begin with.

[Balog]

There was a significant slide in 2006, apparently a great deal of mitigation work was done since then.

[Balog]

Death toll is up to 24.  16 recovered and 8 located. No survivors founds Tuesday. I can't imagine anymore will be at this point.